As residents of the beseiged Homs district of Bab Amr lined up outside with buckets in a desperate attempt to reap drinking water from the slight snowfall, the government continued to attack the opposition stronghold to only worsen its humanitarian conditions. <br /><br />Witnesses say Bab Amr is surrounded by government forces as they continued to shell residential areas using heavy tanks and rockets for the 27th day in a row.<br /><br />Some activists say opposition fighters have been withdrawing from the district as a "tactical retreat". They said they were running out of<br />weapons and humanitarian conditions were catastrophic.<br /><br />Meanwhile, the Syrian Red Crescent has been denied passage into Bab Amr to help deliver much needed aid to residents.<br /><br />Al Jazeera's Laurence Lee reports.
