Troops keep up unrelenting attack on Homs

Amman: Syrian artillery pummelled rebel-held areas of Homs on Monday before an expected government announcement that a vote has approved a new constitution proposed by President Bashar Al Assad.

Shells and rockets crashed into districts of Homs that have already endured weeks of bombardment.

"Intense shelling started on Khalidiya, Ashira, Bayada, Baba Amr and the old city at dawn," opposition activist Mohammad Al Homsi said.

The London-based Syrian Network for Human Rights said seven people had been killed by shellfire in Baba Amr. It said three anti-Al Assad activists were killed elsewhere in Syria.

Opposition accounts of grim conditions in Homs were echoed by those from other observers, including the Red Cross.

Protest in Damascus

Crowds gathered in the sensitive Damascus district of Kfar Souseh, home to several security agency headquarters, to mourn three young men killed in a protest on Sunday, a witness said.

"Only Allah, Syria and freedom" they chanted, instead of the officially sanctioned slogan, "Only Allah, Syria and Bashar".

While the West dismisses talk of a Libya-style Nato role to support Al Assad's opponents, Gulf Arab states have pushed for a more forceful stance.

Saudi Arabia said on Friday it backed the idea of arming rebels, a sentiment echoed by Qatar's prime minister on Monday— but a proposal likely to alarm Moscow.

Shaikh Hamad Bin Jasem Al Thani, the Qatari premier whose country played a part in helping Libya's rebels last year with arms and special forces, said it was time to offer Syrians weaponry.

"Since we failed in the Security Council to do something, I think we have to try to do something to send enough military help to stop the killing," he said. "We should do whatever is necessary to help them, including giving them weapons to defend themselves."

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday that there was "every possibility" of civil war in Syria. "Outside intervention would not prevent that. It would probably expedite it," she told the BBC.

The Syrian government was due to announce the result of the vote on the constitution, which would drop an article making Al Assad's Baath Party the leader of state and society, allow political pluralism and enact a presidential limit of two seven-year terms. A parliamentary poll will be held in three months.

But the presidential term limit is not retrospective, implying that Al Assad, 46, and already in power since 2000, could serve two further terms after his current one expires in 2014.

Low voter turnout

Diplomats who toured dozens of polling stations in Damascus reported seeing only a handful of voters at each location.

The opposition dismisses the reforms on offer, saying that Al Assad, and his father who ruled for 30 years before him, have long paid only lip service to existing legal obligations.

The US and its allies have also dismissed the referendum on a new constitution as a "farce" meant to justify the bloody crackdown on dissent.