ICRC still seeking access for aid convoys into Baba Amr

Syrian regime forces bombed a bridge used by refugees fleeing to Lebanon Syrian regime forces bombed on Tuesday a bridge used by refugees fleeing to Lebanon from the central province of Homs, cutting off a key escape route to evacuate the wounded, a monitoring group said.
"Regime forces on Tuesday bombarded a bridge near Qusayr, in Homs province, which is used by refugees and the wounded fleeing to Lebanon," Rami Abdel Rahman, of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP.
Meanwhile, US Senator John McCain has called for air strikes against Assad. A survey conducted on The Guardian reported that 83.1 per cent of the interviewees supported McCain's call;  however, the International Crisis Group's latest report put forward persuasive counter arguments to the proposal. The report read as follows: "Frustrated and lacking a viable political option, Western officials and analysts have toyed with a series of often half-baked ideas, from initiating direct military attacks to establishing safe havens, humanitarian corridors or so called no-kill zones. All these would require some form of outside military intervention by regime foes that would more than likely intensify involvement by its allies. Even if they were to provoke the regime's collapse, that in itself would do nothing to resolve the manifold problems bequeathed by the conflict: security services and their civilian proxies increasingly gone rogue; deepening communal tensions; and a highly fragmented opposition".
Matthew Russell Lee, specialist UN blogger for Inner City, was quoted by The Guardian as saying that diplomats at the UN were still discussing a new draft resolution on Syria.
Meanwhile, China said it will send another envoy to Syria in a bid to convince the Assad regime of the need for a cease-fire, and to emphasise that it remains against outside intervention. The Foreign Ministry said Monday that former ambassador to Syria Li Huaqing would visit Damascus on Tuesday and Wednesday.
That announcement followed the release Sunday of a Chinese proposal calling for an immediate cease-fire in Syria and talks by all parties but standing firm against any intervention by outside forces.
China has being roundly criticised by the US and others for joining Russia in vetoing a UN resolution on ending Syria's ongoing violence. That plan similarly called for an end to hostilities, but Beijing feared it would open the door to intervention against President Bashar Al-Assad's authoritarian government, as it had in Libya.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is to try for a fifth consecutive day to get relief aid into the shattered Baba Amr district of the central Syrian city of Homs.
After a siege and bombardment lasting nearly a month, security forces moved into the area on Thursday following the withdrawal of armed rebels.
The government has since denied the Red Cross access, citing security concerns.
There are reports of violence across the country, with activists saying at least 60 people were killed on Sunday.
The Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC), a group that organises and documents protests, said 17 people died in Homs, including six who were allegedly summarily executed in a field on the edge of Baba Amr.
Another 18 people were killed in the nearby city of Hama on Sunday, 12 in the suburbs of Damascus and five in the northern province of Idlib, it added.
Fears that thousands of civilians in the Baba Amr neighbourhood are suffering from severe cold and hunger have been mounting since government forces seized the district from rebels last week. Before its capture, the district was under siege for weeks and near constant shelling killed hundreds of people, activists said.
Meanwhile, more than a thousand Syrian refugees have poured across the border into Lebanon to flee Syrian forces, among them families with small children carrying only plastic bags filled with their belongings.
The UN refugee agency said Monday as many as 2,000 Syrians had crossed into Lebanon in the last two days.
The UN-Arab League envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, will visit Damascus this week in what will be his first visit since being appointed to the post, according to a report.
Arab League Secretary General Nabil Al-Arabi told reporters at the group's Cairo headquarters that Annan would visit Syria on March 10, Reuters reported.
"Kofi Annan told me that Syria will receive him on March 10 and that he would arrive in Cairo on March 7," Al-Arabi said.
Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, is to meet Arab leaders in Cairo on Saturday.
"Considering the urgency of the Syria issue, when collective approaches for a settlement need to be found, we view this as a valuable and important format," Lavrov said while meeting his Jordanian counterpart.
The Chinese foreign ministry has issued a statement calling for an immediate ceasefire and dialogue between all parties. It will also send another envoy, former ambassador to Syria Li Huaqing, to Damascus.
Both Russia and China have also backed international calls for humanitarian aid to be allowed in to Syria, but they also insist that must not be used as a pretext for external intervention.
But the opposition, backed by the Arab League and the West, says it is too late and Assad must go as the first step in a transition process.