LOS CABOS, Mexico/BEIRUT, June 19 (Reuters) – Russia and
China have not agreed to any plan for the removal of President
Bashar al-Assad from power but do recognize the danger of an
all-out civil war in Syria, U.S. President Barack Obama said on
Tuesday as Assad’s forces bombarded the city of Homs and clashed
with rebels.

International efforts to halt the violence are deadlocked
because Russia and China, which wield vetoes in the U.N.
Security Council, have blocked tougher action against Assad.
They say the solution must come through political dialogue, an
approach most of the Syrian opposition rejects.

LOS CABOS, Mexico/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Britain’s prime minister said on Tuesday Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it clear at the G20 summit in Mexico he wants President Bashar al-Assad out of power in Syria, but Putin indicated that Syrians should decide if Assad stays and Assad’s forces bombarded the city of Homs and clashed with rebels.

Russia has been the staunchest backer of Assad and his military crackdown against militants and protesters in Syria, including supplying arms to the Syrian government.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian forces bombarded the central city of Homs on Tuesday and clashed with rebel fighters shortly before the chief United Nations monitor was due to brief world powers on the escalating violence which forced him to suspend operations.

A resident in Homs said the sound of explosions could be heard across the city, and activists also reported shelling in the Damascus suburb of Douma and fighting between soldiers and rebels in northern Aleppo province near the border with Turkey.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – United Nations observers monitoring the turmoil in Syria suspended operations on Saturday in response to escalating violence which threatens to kill off a tattered peace plan brokered by international mediator Kofi Annan.

General Robert Mood said the relentless bloodshed posed a threat to his unarmed observers, one of whose patrols was fired upon four days ago, and prevented them from carrying out their mandate to monitor Annan’s widely ignored April 12 ceasefire.

UNITED NATIONS/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syria’s 15-month uprising has grown into a full-scale civil war where President Bashar al-Assad’s forces are trying to recapture swathes of urban territory lost to rebels, the U.N. peacekeeping chief said on Tuesday.

“Yes, I think we can say that,” U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Herve Ladsous said when asked if the Syrian crisis could now be characterized as a civil war.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – United Nations monitors said Syrian helicopters fired on rebel strongholds north of Homs on Monday and said many women and children were reported trapped in the city, calling for “immediate and unfettered access” to the conflict zones.

International mediator Kofi Annan also expressed grave concern about violence in Homs and in Haffeh, a mainly Sunni Muslim town near the Mediterranean coast, where the U.S. State Department said it feared a “potential massacre”.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – His opponents paint him as a butcher, dripping with the blood of thousands killed in a crackdown aimed at maintaining his family’s four-decade rule over Syria.

But President Bashar al-Assad, who has stemmed what many saw as an unstoppable tide of popular protest, says he is fighting to save his country from foreign-backed “terrorists” bent on destroying a proud Arab nation.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – His opponents paint him as a butcher, dripping with the blood of thousands killed in a crackdown aimed at maintaining his family’s four-decade rule over Syria.

But President Bashar al-Assad, who has stemmed what many saw as an unstoppable tide of popular protest, says he is fighting to save his country from foreign-backed “terrorists” bent on destroying a proud Arab nation.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syria is nearing full-blown sectarian civil war that would be catastrophic for the entire Middle East, Western nations said on Thursday, urging Russia to end its support for President Bashar al-Assad and put pressure on him to stop the bloodshed.

With anti-Assad rebels urging international envoy Kofi Annan to declare his peace plan dead, freeing them from any commitment to the tattered truce, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the prospect of spiraling violence presented “terrible” danger.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian rebels on Wednesday gave President Bashar al-Assad a 48-hour deadline to comply with an international peace plan otherwise they would renew their battle to overthrow him.

The ultimatum was issued after U.N. observers reported the discovery of 13 bodies bound and shot in eastern Syria, adding to the world outcry over the massacre last week of 108 men, women and children.