BEIRUT (AP) — A barrage of gunfire by security forces that left residents cowering in their homes killed at least nine people and wounded several others Wednesday in Homs, a hotbed of opposition to President Bashar Assad’s autocratic regime, activists and residents said. Two others were shot dead during raids in Sarameen, in northern Syria.
In a step the opposition says shows the regime is intractable, a planned visit by the Arab League secretary general Wednesday to push Assad to make major concessions to defuse the 6-month-old crisis was called off at the last minute at the government’s request.
