Syria ignores Arab plan to stop bloodshed

Syria on Monday ignored a new Arab initiative to end the bloodshed, with its troops pounding the protest hub of Homs as the top UN rights official said crimes against humanity have probably been committed over the past year.The nature and scale of abuses committed by Syrian forces indicate that crimes against humanity are likely to have been committed since March 2011, High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told the UN General Assembly.Her comments came as European powers welcomed an Arab League decision to ask the United Nations to send a joint peacekeeping force to Syria although Moscow cautioned a ceasefire is needed before peacekeepers can be deployed.President Bashar al-Assads regime swiftly rejected the initiative that was announced on Sunday.Hours after the Leagues decision, troops resumed shelling Baba Amr, a rebel bastion in the central city of Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.The neighbourhood of Baba Amr has been subjected to sporadic shelling since 5:00 am (0300 GMT) by the Syrian army, the Britain-based group said in a statement.Regime forces killed 11 civilians, among them three in Homs and two in nearby Rastan, including a 13-year-old girl in shelling after clashes between army defectors and soldiers. Three troops also died.Security forces also raided homes to arrest people in the southern Daraa province, cradle of the Arab Spring-inspired 11-month uprising against Assads iron-fisted rule.A government official said Syria was determined to crush dissent, regardless of the latest Arab initiative, the official SANA news agency reported.