Demonstrations against Bashar Al-Assad in London.(AP Photo)
The regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose forces have bombarded the flashpoint city of Homs for a 24th straight day killing four, aims a repeat of Hama's 1982 massacre, an activist said on Monday.
"The only aim is to repeat the massacre of Hama," said Homs-based activist who goes by the pseudonym of Abu Bakr, referring to another central city where regime forces killed thousands 30 years ago to crush a Muslim Brotherhood rebellion.
Forces belonging to the regime of President Hafez al-Assad, the father of the current president, bombarded Hama over four weeks, killing between 10,000 and 40,000 people according to various estimates.
"Homs is the capital of the Syrian revolution. That is why they punish it with this level of violence. They think that if they kill everyone, they can kill the revolution," Abu Bakr told AFP on Skype from the rebel-held district of Baba Amr.
He said "more than 700 people have been killed in Baba Amr" since 4 February.
On Monday, at least four civilians were killed in morning shelling of Baba Amr as the Red Cross kept up efforts to evacuate the wounded, including two Western journalists and the bodies of two others, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Explosions were also heard in other neighbourhoods of Homs, including Khaldiyeh, and volleys of heavy gunfire were heard in Bab Sbaa, Al-Khudor and Hamidiyeh districts, the Britain-based monitoring group said.
More than 150 people were killed in weekend violence across Syria as the country went to the ballot box on Sunday to vote in a referendum on a new constitution introduced by Assad aimed at calming nearly a year of protests.
More than 7,600 people have been killed in violence in Syria since March 2011, according to the Observatory.
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