Syria: Bashar al-Assad vows to crush 'foreign-backed terrorism' as army targets new cities For a fifth consecutive day, aid workers from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) were kept out of Baba Amr, the formerly rebel-held area of Homs that was captured by government troops last week. This broke an earlier assurance given by the regime and placed Syria in violation of a statement agreed unanimously by the Security Council calling for free access for aid workers. "Despite a green light given to us last Thursday by the authorities, and repeated daily assurances, it remains the case that we have not been allowed into Baba Amr," said Sean Maguire, spokesman for the ICRC. Security reasons were again given for the refusal of access. The ICRC has also asked for a daily two-hour ceasefire across the country to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid. Again, the regime had indicated that it was willing to accept this suggestion, but no such pauses have taken place. By keeping the ICRC out of Baba Amr, Mr Assad is risking greater diplomatic isolation and the possible disapproval of his two most powerful allies, Russia and China. At the UN, the United States, Britain and France sought to win the agreement of Russia and China yesterday to a new draft resolution. This would demand unfettered access for aid agencies to the worst affected areas of Syria. President Barack Obama called the bloodshed in Syria "heartbreaking and outrageous" yesterday, adding that Mr Assad had "lost legitimacy" and his downfall was a question of "when not if." Having previously protected Mr Assad in the Security Council, Russia and China have shown signs of a more flexible attitude, at least as far as humanitarian access is concerned. Any new resolution would have to be diluted heavily from earlier failed versions to exclude any mention of a "transition" from Mr Assad to a new government. Gennady Gatilov, Russia's deputy foreign minister, said the new draft was "a slightly modified version of the last vetoed document," adding: "It should be substantially balanced." But Western diplomats take the view that passing a watered down resolution would still send a powerful signal to Mr Assad that his isolation was increasing. We'll see what happens, but it is hard to see how Russia and China can object to something that focuses on humanitarian access. They would find themselves in a very difficult situation if they said blocked it," said one official. However, David Cameron spoke to Vladimir Putin by telephone on Monday and told parliament that he "didn't sense any sign of a shift" in the Russian leader's approach towards Syria. But the Prime Minister hoped to secure agreement "that it is absolutely essential that, at the very least, there is humanitarian access."