AMMAN (Reuters) - Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad launched an assault on the southern city of Deraa on Wednesday, intensifying efforts to crush a year-long uprising with no negotiated settlement in sight.
The U.N.-Arab League envoy, Kofi Annan, said he had received a reply from Damascus to peace proposals that he had laid out at the weekend, and wanted further clarifications.
"But given the grave and tragic situation on the ground, everyone must realize that time is of the essence," his spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said in a statement from Geneva. Annan will brief the U.N. Security Council on Friday.
With the anniversary of the revolt falling on March 15, the Syrian army appears to have multiplied its attacks on opposition strongholds this week, sweeping rebels from the northwestern city of Idlib and sending up to 130 tanks and armored vehicles to the southern city of Deraa.
The city lies adjacent to Jordan and was the site of some of the first protests against Assad a year ago. The United Nations estimates some 8,000 people, many of them civilians, have died in the increasingly violent months that followed.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who led efforts five years ago to bring Syria into the Western fold, denounced Assad as a "murderer" on Wednesday, but ruled out any prospect of France intervening militarily as it did in Libya last year.
Diplomats have warned that Syria, riven by sectarian divides, will descend into a Balkans-style civil war unless a political solution can be found. Its economy is already in tatters and its ties with old Arab allies are in shreds.
Official Syrian media accused "armed terrorists" on Wednesday of massacring 15 civilians, including young children, in a pro-government district of the central city of Homs, which has been the focal point of much fighting in recent weeks.
In the south, opposition activists said government troops had raked buildings in Deraa with anti-aircraft fire to subdue the opposition.
"They are hitting the birthplace of our revolution," said a resident from the city, who only identified himself as Mohammed for fear of reprisals, speaking over the Internet.
"Houses are being hit with random bombardment from gunfire, RPGs and anti-aircraft missiles," he added.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put Wednesday's death toll in Deraa at 13 civilians and seven rebels.
There were also reports of a tank bombardment on the village of al-Janoudieh in the northern Idlib region and army fire against the city of al-Haffa and surrounding areas near Syria's Mediterranean coastline.
Reports from Syria cannot be independently verified as the authorities deny access to rights groups and journalists.
CONFUSION
Annan presented Assad with a five-point plan to end the fighting at talks at the weekend. Syria said on Wednesday it had given a "positive" response to the approach.
A Middle Eastern diplomat characterized the reply from Damascus as "not a 'No'". However, adding to the uncertainty, a senior Western diplomat in the region told Reuters that Damascus had rejected Annan's suggestions.
As the army crackdown progresses, a growing number of Syrians are seeking to escape the violence.
The U.N. refugee agency said on Tuesday that some 230,000 Syrians had fled their homes during the past 12 months, of whom around 30,000 have sought safety abroad.
A stream of refugees crossed into Turkey early on Wednesday, saying they had been warned that their villages in the neighboring Idlib province would soon be targeted by the army.
"They are bombing Idlib. They are bombing the city. They have tanks and they have rockets," said Abdul Samad, one of the refugees waiting for help at a fog-bound border post.
A Western diplomatic source told Reuters that, while Assad could snuff out pockets of resistance, the rebels were simply pulling back and blending into the background.
"I feel the conflict will last a long time and fear that it will get a lot bloodier than it is now. That's why we have to keep pushing the diplomacy and the sanctions," he said.
Syria comprises a mix of faiths, sects and ethnic groups. Assad's minority Alawite sect dominates the levers of power and holds sway over the Sunni Muslim majority.
Wednesday's reported massacre in Homs took place in an Alawite district. On Monday, rebels and government traded blame for the murder of up to 50 people in a mixed area of the city.
The turmoil, coupled with Western sanctions, has cost Damascus billions of dollars in lost revenue from crude oil sales and tourism receipts. The Syrian pound has halved in value, foreign investment has dried up and trade has collapsed.
Yet there is no sign of the Assad family and their allies losing control, or of significant defections from the army.
While Western powers and much of the Arab world have slammed the bloody crackdown, Syria has been able to count on the support of both Russia and China, which have vetoed two U.N. resolutions that were critical of Damascus.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Wednesday that Beijing was taking no sides in the crisis, and that he was "deeply pained" by the suffering of the Syrian people, though his remarks did not suggest China's diplomatic position will change.
Amnesty International issued a report on Wednesday saying Syria should be referred to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. However, only the U.N. Security Council can do that, and it remains divided.
"The testimony presented in this report ... is yet further evidence that torture and other ill-treatment in Syria form part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population," Amnesty said.
(Writing by Crispian Balmer; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Oliver Holmes and Erika Solomon in Beirut; John Irish in Paris; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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