In Homs, Opposition Reports 'Indiscriminate Slaughter'

Syria’s uprising got even bloodier today as government forces continued their assault on Homs, clashing with military defectors and other opposition gunmen. Opposition activists declared the city a “humanitarian disaster area,” estimating that in the past week more than 100 have been killed. “Indiscriminate slaughter is being committed by the regime’s militia,” the Syrian National Council said, according to the LA Times. The battle represents the first serious armed resistance to the regime's violent crackdown.

“Homs is a turning point for now,” one Damascus-based analyst tells the New York Times. “It’s a successful model of self-defense … at a time when you really can’t expect people to take any more.” The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, meanwhile, jacked its death toll estimates for the entire uprising to 3,500—up from 3,000 last month—and said even that was a conservative estimate based on “credible sources on the ground,” the AP reports. (More Syria stories.)