Syrian forces spread across the city of Deraa Monday after overnight clashes there and pursued “clean-up” operations in Homs, where the Red Cross was still seeking access to a former rebel bastion. Syria has so far brushed off international pressure to halt nearly a year of bloodshed since the first protests against President Bashar Al-Assad erupted in Deraa last March, touching off an uprising inspired by others in the Arab world. The United Nations-Arab League special envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, will travel to Damascus on Saturday for what would be his first visit since he was appointed to the post last month. “Kofi Annan told me that Syria will receive him on March 10 and that he would arrive in Cairo on March 7,” the Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said in Cairo. China also said it would send an envoy to Syria to try to halt a conflict that has divided Beijing from Western and Arab powers demanding stronger action against Assad. Hundreds of troops and security men fanned out in Deraa on a scale not seen for months, a resident of the southern city said. The clampdown followed attacks on security checkpoints in the city centre that were also the most extensive for months. At least one person was killed, the Deraa resident told Reuters. Outgunned rebels have multiplied hit-and-run assaults across Syria in the last few days to signal their defiance after the military overran the Baba Amr district of Homs. A bomb explosion hit an oil pipeline in Syria's eastern province of Deir Al-Zor on Monday as Syrian troops began a sweep in the region, opposition activists said. Syrian armoured forces recaptured Baba Amr from its lightly armed defenders on Thursday after an almost month-long siege in which shelling reduced much of the district to rubble. The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent were still seeking approval from Syrian authorities to enter Baba Amr to help civilians there. Teams from the two agencies distributed food and blankets to civilians, including families who had fled Baba Amr, in two neighbourhoods of Homs, ICRC spokesman Hicham Hassan said.
