Army of the Syrian President Assad began the battle of Homs with the 4th Armoured Division 0103121

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Defense News - Syria
 
 
Thursday, March 1, 2012, 08:51 AM
 
Army of the Syrian President Assad began the battle of Homs with the 4th Armoured Division.
Fighting continued is several Syrian cities Wednesday, February 29, 2012, while overnight rebels said they were facing at least 7,000 Assad troops in Homs. One diplomat claimed the president’s Fourth Armoured Division was intending to “finish off” the rebels.
     

Members of the Free Syrian Army are seen deployed in al-Bayada, Homs, February 29, 2012.
     

Syria's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Jihad Maqdisi said in a news conference on Wednesday that calls for arming the opposition constituted an aggressive act against his country. The Syrian armed forces appeared started military operation to retake the area that has become a symbol of the uprising to oust President Bashar al-Assad.

Syrian troops launched a ground attack in Homs on Wednesday, February 29, 2012, in an apparent attempt to overrun the rebel-held Baba Amro neighborhood that has endured 25 days of siege and fierce bombardment, opposition sources said.

Homs is under fire from heavy artillery, rockets and tanks, and the noose is tightening, particularly around the Homs’ district of Baba Amr, where the Free Syrian Army, made up of a number of defected soldiers and other armed opponents of the Syrian regime. Outnumbered and outgunned, it controls the area, which has come to symbolize the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.

According to the United Nations, the death toll has now reached 7,500, a number disputed by Syrian activists, who claimed that more than 8,000 Syrians have been killed in the violence that has spread to several pockets of the country.