Talks with Syria's Assad end with no breakthrough "The situation in Syria still is a reason for worry," Brahimi told reporters in brief remarks after the meeting in Damascus. We hope that all the sides work toward the solution, as the Syrian people want. The government also pledged to support any efforts that keep "the liberty of the nation as a whole," according to an account of Assad's conversation with Brahimi by the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency. The opposition insists that no end to the fighting is possible as long as Assad stays in power. The government calls the rebels terrorists, extremists and foreign agents who would compromise Syrian independence. Assad has vowed not to leave the country for exile abroad. As negotiations falter, the war is growing more brutal, with almost 200 people killed every day in fighting, airstrikes and shelling. On Sunday, a Syrian airstrike in Halfaya in Hama province hit the town's only working bakery. The count of people who died or were wounded while waiting to buy bread was still incomplete, but estimates ranged from the low 40s to just under 100. That was far less than initial estimates, yet the airstrike qualified as one of deadliest single incidents during the 21 months of conflict. Though it was unclear how many of the casualties at the bakery were civilians and how many were fighters, seething opposition leaders characterized the airstrike as a massacre. Mouaz al-Khatib, head of the exiled Syrian Opposition Coalition that the United States recognizes as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people, denounced the strike on his Facebook page. He wrote: "The Halfaya massacre is not just a massacre but a message from both those who are part of the regime and those who support it, and in short it is: Either you die or you accept the enslavement that we will force upon you." Also Monday, opposition activists issued a series of unverified reports about a brutal battle Sunday in the city of Homs, where some sort of toxic gas purportedly was used against rebel fighters. Six men were reported killed and scores injured. Several videos posted on YouTube showed men in what appeared to be a medical clinic or a hospital desperately gasping for breath from behind oxygen masks. In one video, an injured man cried out that he had lost his sight. Rami Abdulrahman, who posts a running count of casualties reported by opposition activists on his Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said in a phone interview that the casualties were all fighters who took ill after they inhaled the gas during a battle. "We don't know exactly what it is," Abdulrahman said, adding that he doubts it was a chemical weapon such as sarin gas. "You have six people killed, no more," he said. If chemical weapons were used, it would be many more. The Arabic satellite television network al-Jazeera reported that the toxic fumes may have come from a concentrated form of tear gas. Abdulrahman, who uses a pseudonym, said he has asked the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to send a delegation of doctors to Homs to investigate the incident and determine what felled the fighters. Philippe Stoll, an ICRC spokesman in Geneva, could not confirm whether it had received the request. But he said Red Cross doctors were in Homs as recently as last week to make sure that wounded people receive medical treatment and to deliver food. He said the doctors left only because security in the city was precarious and that they would like to return to continue their humanitarian work. Syria is widely believed to have an arsenal of chemical weapons, including mustard gas and sarin. Earlier this month, after reports that Syria was moving some of its supplies, President Obama warned that the use of chemical weapons would be a "red line" that would lead to swift repercussions from the international community. Syrian government officials, without explicitly confirming that they possess the deadly materials, have repeatedly insisted that what they have is for defensive purposes and that Syria would never use chemical weapons on its own people. They also have maintained that the supplies are secure but warned that they could fall into the hands of rebels and extremists if the government falls. Russia, one of the Syrian government's staunchest allies, has expressed doubt that Assad would deploy chemical weapons. "I do not believe Syria would use chemical weapons," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with Russia Today that was translated into English on Monday. It would be a political suicide for the government if it does.