The Syrian forces that oppose President Bashar al-Assad's government were dealt two crushing blows this week; they were battered by the combined forces of al-Assad and Hezbollah in the city of Homs and they lost their biggest political supporter when Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim brotherhood were forced out of office in Egypt, according to Reuters.
The Syrian army has taken back most of Homs but the rebels still have control over a few neighborhoods that they are fighting to maintain. Air strikes artillery have been focused on Homs as al-Assad's government attempts to deliver a crushing defeat to the opposition. The fighting has caused thousands of civilians within Homs to be completely isolated from food and water and in desperate need of assistance, according to The New York Times.
"The areas under attack in Homs have been cut off from the rest of the world and suffer an urgent shortage of medicine and staple foods," a statement from the opposition Syrian National Coalition said.
Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, told the Associated Press that he is "extremely concerned about the human rights and humanitarian impact" of the latest government surge on Homs.
"Shortages of food, water, medicine, electricity and fuel in besieged areas are severely affecting civilians, including women and children," Colville said.
The main disadvantage that the opposition has faced throughout the conflict is a lack of central leadership. The most dominant leadership within the opposition comes from the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood; a group that is now reeling after the ouster of Morsi. The Syrian National Coalition is currently in talks in Istanbul with Saudi Arabia and Qatar that have stalled due to the coalition's inability to elect a leader, reports Reuters.
"The atmosphere is subdued," a coalition official told Reuters. "The Brotherhood in Egypt, and by extension in Syria and elsewhere, took a blow, but even their opponents feel that the Middle East lost a historic opportunity to convince Islamists to embrace democracy."
Two years of bloody civil war in Syria have claimed over 100,000 lives according to the Syrian Observatory for Human rights.
