BEIRUT — A wounded British photographer who had been trapped in the besieged Syrian city of Homs was spirited safely into Lebanon on Tuesday in a risky journey that killed 13 rebels who helped him escape the relentless shelling and gunfire.
INTERACTiVE
http://www.arkansas…">Read more on the protests in the Mid East
A Syrian diplomat stormed out of an emergency U.N. meeting amid renewed calls for a cease-fire to deliver humanitarian aid. A top human-rights official said a U.N. panel’s report concluded that members of the Damascus regime were responsible for “crimes against humanity.”
The death toll in the 11-month uprising against authoritarian President Bashar Assad was well more than 7,500, the United Nations said, and activists reported more than 250 dead in the past two days alone, mostly from government shelling in Homs and Hama province.
The harrowing ordeal of British photographer Paul Conroy, who was wounded with a French colleague last week by government rockets that killed two others, has drawn focus to the siege of Homs, which has emerged as the center of the anti-Assad uprising.
Hundreds have been killed in the city, parts of which the army has surrounded and shelled daily for more than three weeks. Many have died while venturing outside to forage for food, and activists have posted videos online of homes reduced to rubble and alleyways rendered no- go zones by snipers.
Conroy’s escape was the first sign of relief for a group of Western journalists who sneaked into Syria illegally and reached the embattled Homs neighborhood of Baba Amr only to find themselves trapped. Government rockets bombarded the makeshift media center they shared with activists last week, killing two of them and injuring Conroy and French reporter Edith Bouvier. Conroy and Bouvier later appeared in activist videos lying on makeshift hospital beds, pleading for help.
Conroy crossed the border into neighboring Lebanon after leaving Homs on Sunday evening, according to the global activist group Avaaz, which said it organized the evacuation with local activists.
The group said 35 Syrians volunteered to help get the journalists out and 13 were killed in the operation.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy retracted an earlier statement that Bouvier had also made it to Lebanon, saying that he had been “imprecise” because of the complexities of the situation.
“It is not confirmed that Madame Bouvier is today safe in Lebanon,” he said.
The journalists believed to still be in the neighborhood are Frenchman William Daniels and Spaniard Javier Espinosa. In addition, the bodies of American Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik, who were killed last week, are thought to be still in the neighborhood.
Syria’s conflict started in March 2011 when protesters inspired by the uprisings that ousted leaders in Tunisia and Egypt took to the streets in impoverished hinterlands to call for Assad’s downfall.
As his troops have increased their force to try to stop the unrest, the protests have spread, and some demonstrators have taken up arms to protect themselves or attack the regime.
U.N. political chief B. Lynn Pascoe said “well over” 7,500 people have died in Syria’s violence and that there are credible reports that more than 100 civilians are dying daily. Activist groups said Monday the death toll for 11 months of unrest has surpassed 8,000.
The situation in Syria has deteriorated rapidly in recent weeks, said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, who called for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire at a meeting in Geneva.
Her office has received reports that Syrian security forces “have launched massive campaigns of arrest,” she said.
Pillay cited a U.N. expert panel’s report that concluded Syrian government officials were responsible for “crimes against humanity” committed by security forces against opposition members. The crimes included the shelling civilians, the execution of deserters and the torture of detainees.
Some opposition groups, too, have committed gross abuses, the report said.
The panel has compiled a confidential list of top-level Syrian officials who could face prosecution over the atrocities.
Pillay reiterated her call for Syria to be referred to the International Criminal Court “in the face of the unspeakable violations that take place every moment.”
“What is urgently needed today is for the killings to stop,” Pillay said. “For that to happen the international community must unite in sending a clear message to the Syrian authorities, and the Security Council must assume its responsibility to protect the population of Syria.”
“More than at any other time, those committing atrocities in Syria have to understand that the international community will not stand by and watch this carnage and that their decisions and the actions they take today ultimately will not go unpunished,” she said.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking at a Senate hearing Tuesday, said in response to a question that “there would be an argument to be made” that Assad is a war criminal on the basis of the definition of crimes against humanity. But, she added, the label “limits options, perhaps, to persuade leaders to step down from power.”
Syria’s U.N. ambassador in Geneva, Fayssal al-Hamwi, accused members of the U.N. Human Rights Council of promoting terrorism and prolonging the crisis by organizing the debate on the situation in his country.
Al-Hamwi denounced a planned resolution on Syria as “malicious and prejudiced” and then said his delegation would withdraw from what he called “this sterile discussion.” He then stormed out of the room.
Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, the U.S. representative to the 47-nation council, called al-Hamwi’s comments “delusional.”
“Anybody who heard the Syrian ambassador should be aware that his comments were borderline out of touch with reality,” she told reporters.
China and Russia vetoed an earlier effort by Arab and Western countries at the Security Council to put pressure on Assad, and their action seemed to embolden the Syrian authorities in their drive to crush dissent.
The French Foreign Ministry spokesman, Bernard Valero, said he hoped Moscow and Beijing would not oppose the move.
Tunisia’s first post-revolution president, Moncef Marzouki, said he would offer Assad asylum as part of a negotiated end to the conflict. But Assad, who blames the uprising on Islamist extremists, is unlikely to accept the offer.
Information for this article was contributed by Ben Hubbard, Elaine Ganley, Frank Jordans, Bouazza Ben Bouazza, Donna Cassata and Anita Snow of The Associated Press and by Neil MacFarquhar, Alan Cowell, Stephen Castle, Ellen Barry, Nick Cumming-Bruce and an employee from Beirut for The New York Times.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/29/2012