Innocent blood cries out to Assad The scale of the horrors that President Bashar al-Assad has inflicted on the people of Homs is gradually becoming known, although the Syrian army is doing its best to ensure that no news can emerge from that city, not least by targeting the few, very brave journalists still left. Assad has ordered his army to bombard the Baba Amr residential neighbourhood of Homs with relentless cannon and mortar fire. At least 373 people, including many women and children, have been killed by the shelling, which has gone on for three weeks without interruption. But if the Syrian army's siege of the city continues, hundreds, and probably thousands more will die. Assad's father killed an estimated 20,000 people in 1982 when he ordered his troops to demolish the town of Hama and to massacre everyone in it, following a revolt against his rule which had similarities to the present uprising. The effect of the ruthless obliteration of Hama was to end any further expression of opposition for the next 25 years. The lesson of his father's brutality has, sadly, not been lost on the present Syrian tyrant. The great question that the civilised world faces is how to stop Assad perpetrating a massacre in Homs of a similar scale to the terrible destruction visited on Hama. The opposition of the Russians and the Chinese to a UN resolution calling for an end to the violence in Syria means that the West has been restricted to the use of economic sanctions as a means of applying pressure on this murderous regime. There is certainly no appetite for military action on the part of any of the great powers to oust Assad, or for sending weapons to rebel forces. Out of common humanity, however, the authorities in Damascus must be persuaded to allow the evacuation of women and children, together with the wounded, from the city. The Red Cross and the Red Crescent have requested this, as have the "Friends of Syria," a coalition of Arab and other countries. At a meeting in Tunisia, that group backed the Arab League's call for a "safe corridor" which would allow non-combatants to leave the city. On Friday, Assad permitted three ambulances from the Red Crescent to evacuate seven wounded women and children. He must allow a ceasefire that lasts long enough to permit the evacuation of the thousands of women, children, and wounded still left. That would be a small concession, and one that would still leave the remaining rebels at the mercy of the overwhelming firepower of Assad's army. But it would be better than nothing.