Syrian forces on Wednesday killed 23 people across the country and launched a ground assault on a rebel-held district of Homs after shelling it for 26 straight days, as world pressure grew for humanitarian access to besieged protest cities.

A security source told Agence France Presse in Damascus that Baba Amr "is under control," after activists had earlier said that elite troops of the Fourth Armored Division had taken up position around the holdout neighborhood of Syria's third-largest city.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat stressed that the cabinet is asked to meet the interests of the Lebanese citizens and priorities instead of engaging in useless debates.

“The citizens must have their priorities met, especially (in) the electricity” sector, Jumblat told An Nahar newspaper on Wednesday.

United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly ruled out any intention by the U.N. to set refugee camps for Syrians who have fled to Lebanese border towns or to set up humanitarian corridors through Lebanon.

Plumbly told reporters on Tuesday that he fears the escalating situation in Syria might have repercussions on Lebanon, but the officials he met with since his appointment stressed their keenness to safeguard Lebanon and disassociate it from the developments in the neighboring country.

The United States is drawing up a new draft U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria demanding humanitarian access to protest cities where thousands have been killed, diplomats said Tuesday.

If put to a vote it would be the third time Western nations have tried to get a Security Council resolution on the 11 month old crisis.

Three Syrians, who were kidnapped 18 days ago in the central Bekaa valley in eastern Lebanon, were released at dawn Wednesday after the payment of ransom to the abductors, the National News Agency reported.

NNA said the three men kidnapped along with a fourth - released immediately after the abduction that took place on the Taanayel-Chtaura road on Feb. 11 - were transferred to the army intelligence headquarters to hear their testimonies.

The White House said Tuesday that al-Qaida's efforts to take advantage of violence in Syria mean it is no time to send arms to opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"Without getting into assessments of our intelligence capabilities, I would simply say that we are aware of the fact that al-Qaida and other extremists are seeking to take advantage of the situation created by Assad's brutal assault on the opposition," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

Syrian authorities have prevented an “armed terrorist group” from infiltrating Syria through the Ouyoun al-Shara-Halat crossing point in Talkalakh which borders northern Lebanon, Syria’s state-run news agency SANA reported on Tuesday.

Quoting an official source, SANA said three members of the group were killed and several others wounded in a clash with Syrian security forces.

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly on Tuesday said the U.S. Administration understands Lebanon’s situation and that of the Lebanese-Syrian relations.

“However, we must look at what Lebanon did and the prominent role it played by taking care of the Syrian refugees”, Connelly added, in an interview on LBC.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday an argument could be made for declaring President Bashar al-Assad a war criminal, but said such action could complicate a solution in Syria.

"Based on definitions of war criminal and crimes against humanity, there would be an argument to be made that he would fit into that category," Clinton told a Senate hearing on the State Department budget.

The United Nations said Tuesday that well over 7,500 people have been killed in the brutal Syrian crackdown amid new international demands for the Damascus government to allow humanitarian access.

France urged Russia and China to back a U.N. Security Council resolution on halting the bloodshed and getting rescue aid into protest cities. Russia and China have vetoed two resolutions on Syria, but appear to be softening their stance.