With the wiggle room provided by the Russian-Chinese veto of a U.N. resolution that would have thrown Syria's President, Bashar al-Assad, out of power, Syrian forces continued their assault on the resistance stronghold of Homs, and according to some reports, have killed at least 50 Monday morning. The BBC reports that the shelling of Homs began shortly after daybreak, while members of the Syrian National Council, the main opposition group in Syria, told the The Guardian that the death toll is at least 50. The BBC cites at least 15 dead, and CNN, from the account of a field doctor, reports the number is at least 30.  What isn't up for discussion or confirmation is that Syrian forces are relentlessly attacking Homs. "At 6 a.m. we started hearing mortars falling about every 30 seconds," said the BBC's Paul Wood in an audio report peppered with the sound of explosives this morning.  "Everybody in this part of Homs... feels abandoned," he said.  

The "abandonment" the Syrian people voiced which Wood refers to is the Russian and Chinese veto of the U.N.'s resolution to intervene on behalf of the Syrian people--a resolution which would have seen Assad relinquish power. The veto gives Assad a “license to kill,” Qatari Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Khalid Al Attiyah said over the weekend. “Yesterday was a sad day,” he said. “This is exactly what we feared.” 

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Alexander Abad-Santos