Syrian forces kill three during U.N. visit

Syrian security forces shot three people dead in the restive western city of Homs during a visit by a U.N. humanitarian team probing atrocities, witnesses said. The victims were killed when security forces opened fire on crowds who had poured out to meet the fact-finding team in the flashpoint city, the witnesses said. Several thousand people had converged on the Old Clock Square in the city center, whose landmark clock tower was built by the French in the early 1930s, to meet the U.N. team, the witnesses said. The team visited Syria's third-largest city -- a hotbed of anti-regime dissent 100 miles north of Damascus -- after a U.N. human rights panel said Assad regime forces may have committed crimes against humanity by carrying out summary executions, torturing prisoners and harming children in their crackdown against opposition protesters. The panel, led by Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kyung-wha Kang, recommended Thursday the U.N. Security Council refer Syria to the International Criminal Court for prosecution of alleged atrocities. This month Syrian military and security forces assaulted many of Syria's biggest cities, including Hama, Deir al-Zour, Latakia and Homs. The humanitarian delegation was met in Homs by crowds calling for the Assad regime's overthrow and waving SOS flags, video footage indicated. "SOS" is an internationally recognized call for help. The crowds appeared emboldened by signs of an imminent victory for Libyan rebels after six months of a NATO-backed offensive against the Moammar Gadhafi regime, Britain's Guardian reported. "Libya has given us encouragement," a woman told The Guardian. "But the international community needs to know what has been happening here. What is being reported only scratches the surface." A U.N. official told The Guardian the government had stuck by its promise to allow the delegation unfettered access to the country. But Homs residents later said the mission missed the key large neighborhood of Khaldiyah near Old Clock Square, where the crackdown had been severe. A Western diplomat told the newspaper that before arriving in Homs, people in suburban Douma and the small town of Moadimiyeh, both on the outskirts of Damascus, flocked to the U.N. team to show the delegation signs of torture.