Red Cross denied access in Syria

DAMASCUS, Syria, March 3 (UPI) -- The Red Cross said Syrian authorities have told the aid group it can't enter a devastated Homs neighborhood because booby traps and mines haven't been cleared.

A Red Cross envoy arrived Friday but was denied access to the devastated Baba Amr district, the BBC reported.

A day after rebel fighters withdrew from Baba Amr Thursday, there were reports of revenge killings and summary executions, the British broadcaster said.

The Red Cross had earlier been given permission by the Syrian government to enter the Baba Amr district.

"It is unacceptable that people who have been in need of emergency assistance for weeks have still not received any help," said Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

In Baba Amr, which has no power and little food, water or medical supplies, Syrian state television showed pictures of widespread destruction it blamed on "armed terrorist" gangs carrying out a foreign plot against Syria. The BBC said there had been reports of mass arrests of males over 18 and a local cooperative building had been converted into a detention center.

Elsewhere in Syria, state media said a suicide car bomb attack in the southern city of Daraa had killed two people.

In the central city of Rastan, at least 12 people, including children, were killed in an apparent rocket or mortar attack by the Syrian army on anti-government protesters, The New York Times reported.

Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Friday called on the international community to help stop the violence in Syria, where he said the government had waged an "atrocious assault" against its own people.

In an address to the U.N. General Assembly, Ban said: "The international community must urgently find unity in pressing the Syrian authorities and all other parties to stop the violence. It must insist, with one voice, that the Syrian authorities give access to international humanitarian workers as an essential first step towards a peaceful solution."

Ban said "further militarization of the Syrian opposition is not the answer."