U.S. Summons Syria Envoy to Voice 'Outrage' over Homs Attacks

The United States on Wednesday summoned Syria's envoy in Washington to express "outrage" over his government's month-long bombardment of the flashpoint city of Homs.

During talks at the State Department with Syrian Charge d'Affaires Zuheir Jabbour, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman also urged Syria to live up to its November 2 commitment to the Arab League to end such violence.

The meeting was "to express our outrage over the month-long campaign of brutality and indiscriminate shelling of the city of Homs," the State Department said in a statement.

Feltman, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, "urged the regime to comply with its November 2 commitment to the Arab League to end such violence and remove its military from cities and residential areas."

He also urged President Bashar al-Assad "to accept the Arab League plan for a peaceful transition of power in Syria," according to the statement.

Analysts said Assad is determined to crush the rebellion in Homs to avoid it becoming another Misrata, the rebel Libyan town whose fighters captured strongman Moammar Gadhafi.

Regime forces have been shelling Homs for nearly four weeks, with rebel neighborhoods, most notably Baba Amr, taking the brunt of the pounding.

But they have yet to break the resistance of poorly equipped but staunch army deserters who are holed up in Homs, dubbed the "capital of freedom."