Syrian military assaults intensify on Homs, 16 killed

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

AMMAN, July 19 (Reuters) - Syrian troops and militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad killed 16 people in attacks in the city of Homs on Tuesday, residents said, an escalation of a crackdown against a focal point for pro-democracy protests.

Among those killed were 10 mourners at a funeral for another 10 people who were killed by security forces on Monday, the Local Coordinations Committee, an activists group, said.

Syrian authorities have expelled most foreign journalists, making it hard to verify activist accounts or official statements.

"We could not bury the martyrs at the city's main cemetery so we opted for a smaller cemetery near the mosque, when the militiamen began firing at us from their cars," one mourner, who gave his name as Abdallah, told Reuters by telephone.

He said the bodies had been taken to Khaled Ibn al-Walid mosque in the eastern Khalidiya district of the city.

"Khalidiya is totally besieged by the military. We are cut off from the rest of Homs as if we are a separate country."

Homs has been a major center of protests against Assad's rule and tension has run high between the majority Sunni inhabitants and members of the Alawite minority, the same sect as Assad.

Khalidiya is inhabited by members of Sunni tribes from rural Homs while the nearby Nozha neighborhood is home to most of the country's security forces and militiamen, from the Alawite sect.