Russia to send marines to evacuate nationals from Syria

The Interfax news agency said Monday that two Russian navy ships are to sail to Syria to protect Russian citizens and its naval base there. This would mark the first time since the uprising in Syria started that Russia is sending extra troops to its base in Syria.

Interfax quoted an unidentified Russian navy official as saying that the Nikolai Filchenkov and Caesar Kunikov amphibious assault vessels will be heading to the Syrian port of Tartus, but didn’t give a precise date. The official said the ships will carry an unspecified number of marines to protect Russians in Syria and evacuate materials from Tartus if necessary.

The Russian Defense Ministry had no immediate comment, and an official at the Russian Black Sea fleet declined to comment. Tartus is Russia’s only naval base outside the former Soviet Union with Russian personnel of an unspecified size. The bulk of Russian military men in Syria are military advisers teaching Syrians how to use Russian weapons.

Syrian forces, meanwhile, renewed shelling of the central city of Homs on Monday, one day after the head of the U.N. observers’ mission demanded that warring parties allow the evacuation of women, children, elderly and sick people, activists said.

On Sunday, only a day after the observers’ mission declared the suspension of its activities, at least 50 more people were killed and hundreds were reportedly wounded across the country in battles between rebel forces and the Syrian army, which continued shelling Homs.

According to Abu Imad, a Syrian opposition activist, „Around 85 percent of Homs is now under shelling or bombardment with mortar rounds and heavy machine guns,” and dozens of civilians were unable to receive medical treatment because all of the city’s hospitals were under the control of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s „Shabiha” civilian militia gangs.

The head of the U.N. observers’ mission, Maj. Gen. Robert Mood, demanded Sunday that warring parties allow the evacuation of women, children, elderly and sick people endangered by fighting in Homs and other combat zones.

Mood said the observers had been trying for the past week to bring out families and wounded trapped in Homs due to heavy shelling of rebel-held areas.

„The parties must reconsider their position and allow women, children, the elderly and the injured to leave conflict zones without any preconditions and ensure their safety,” Mood said in a statement. „U.N. attempts to extract civilians from the line of fire over the past week have been unsuccessful.”

„This requires willingness on both sides to respect and protect the human life of the Syrian people,” he added.

On Saturday, the U.N. said its 300 observers based in Syria were suspending all missions because of concerns for their safety after fighting intensified over the previous 10 days. But the monitors said they were remaining the country.

A U.N. official told The Associated Press earlier Sunday that a team of observers had left Damascus for Homs, hoping to evacuate civilians. The plan was not made public for fear that it would compromise the mission. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The official said the plan was to arrange a brief cease-fire of up to 90 minutes during which the civilians would have been evacuated from rebel-held areas of Homs through a safe corridor. He said the mission was approved by the Syrian government. But the fighting never eased enough to allow the evacuations.

The activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, meanwhile, said at least eight soldiers were shot and killed in one rebel attack, and some 30 Syrian civilians and rebels were killed across the country Sunday.

„The humanitarian situation in Homs is very difficult,” said Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the British-based Observatory. „It is very clear that the army wants to retake Homs.”

Another activist, Mohammad al-Homsi, said, „Since the (U.N.) observers stopped working yesterday, we have seen a clear escalation.”

On Sunday, clashes appeared particularly intense in Homs and its surrounding provinces as well as in the town of Douma on the fringes of the Syrian capital, said the Observatory and the Local Coordination Committees, another activist group.

The statement calling off U.N. observer patrols reinforced fears that Syria is sliding ever closer to civil war 15 months after the rebellion to oust Assad began. Opposition groups say more than 14,000 civilians and rebels have been killed since the uprising began in March 2011.

U.S. President Barack Obama was set to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Mexico on Monday but expectations are low that they will break a deadlock over Syria’s conflict, which has sectarian dimensions.

United States Sen. John McCain on Sunday characterized the lack of U.S. aid to Syrian rebels as „shameful” and said helping their cause would deal „the greatest blow to Iran in the Middle East in 25 years.”

„The fact that the United States of America is not helping these people — and we can — is shameful,” McCain, who ran against Obama in 2008, said Sunday on NBC’s „Meet the Press.”

So far, the U.S. has refused to arm Syrian rebels in part to avoid a proxy fight with Iran and Russia, which both back the Syrian government.

McCain said the Syrian rebels were facing an „unfair fight now” and reiterated the claim that „Russian shipments are coming in.”

U.S. military officials told NBC on Friday that a ship loaded with arms and Russian troops was on its way to the Russian port in Tartus, Syria. Tartus represents a vital strategic asset for Russia, serving as its corridor to the Middle East and its only port on the Mediterranean.

The Sunday Telegraph reported over the weekend that the U.S. had asked that Britain prevent the Russian transfer of attack helicopters to Syria. The U.S. also called for a halt of the transfer of the Mi-25 gunship, known as „the flying tank,” as part of the current sanctions leveled by the EU against the Syrian regime.