BEIRUT/CAIRO/PARIS: Government forces clashed with opponents of President Bashar Assad in cities and rural areas across Syria Tuesday, as Arab officials confirmed that regional governments would be ready to arm the resistance if the bloodshed does not come to and end.

Pro-opposition neighborhoods in the western city of Homs, heart of the uprising against Assad’s 11-year-rule, suffered bombardment for the 11th day running.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 20 people killed across the country Tuesday, including opposition supporters, civilians and five government soldiers who were shot in clashes with rebels in the town of Qalaat al-Madyaq in the restive Hama area.

Syria’s official news agency, SANA, said 13 soldiers were laid to rest Tuesday after they fell in clashes with “armed gangs” in Homs, Ildib and the countryside near Damascus.

Meanwhile, thousands of Assad supporters took to the streets in Latakia Tuesday to support the president’s planned reforms and denounce foreign interference in Syria, SANA reported.

With Assad oblivious to international condemnation of his campaign to crush the revolt, Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia prepared for a new resolution at the U.N. in the next few days to support a peace plan forged at a meeting in Cairo Sunday.

But Arab League diplomats said that arming the opposition forces was now officially an option.

A resolution that was passed at the meeting urged Arabs to “provide all kinds of political and material support” to the opposition.

This would allow arms transfers, they confirmed to Reuters.

“We will back the opposition financially and diplomatically in the beginning but if the killing continues, civilians must be helped to protect themselves. The resolution gives Arab states all options to protect the Syrian people,” an Arab ambassador said in Cairo.

The threat of military support was meant to add pressure on the Syrian leader and his Russian and Chinese allies but it also risks leading to a Libya-style conflict or sectarian civil war.

Smuggled guns are already filtering into Syria but it is not clear whether Arab or other governments are behind the deliveries. Weapons and Sunni Muslim insurgents are also crossing from Iraq into Syria, Iraqi officials and arms dealers said.

Assad, whose Alawite-minority family has ruled the mainly Sunni Muslim country for 42 years, is trying to stamp out pro-democracy demonstrations and insurgent attacks. He dismisses his opponents as terrorists backed by enemy nations in a regional power-play and says he will introduce reforms on his own terms.

While the uprising initially involved rallies by civilians, armed insurrection by the Free Syrian Army, made up largely of army defectors, is increasingly coming into play.

The government says at least 2,000 members of its military and security forces have died and the U.N. says its forces have killed 6,000 people.

In Homs, a strategic city on the highway between Damascus and commercial hub Aleppo, the pro-opposition neighborhood of Baba Amro was struck at dawn by the heaviest shelling in five days, the Syria Observatory for Human Rights said.

Six people were killed, it said, adding to an estimated toll of more than 400 since the assault began on Feb.3

“They are hitting the same spots several times, making venturing out there impossible. The shelling was heavy in the morning and now it is one rocket every 15 minutes or so,” activist Hussein Nader said by satellite phone.

Another opposition activist, Mohammad al-Homsi, said the humanitarian situation was getting worse, with food and fuel short and prices soaring. Army roadblocks had been set up around opposition districts, Homsi said from the city.

In Rankous, a rural town near Damascus, many residents had fled from government shelling, activist Ibn Al-Kalmoun said. Bombardments were also reported in the town of Rastan.

In other action reported by activists, security forces and army defectors clashed near Aleppo, where the government appears to have strong support. Three people were killed there.

Two people were killed in a skirmish between rebels and government forces in Bou Kamal, in Deir al-Zour province, they said, and arrest campaigns continued in the Jabal al-Zawiya region.

Foreign media have to rely on unverified activists’ accounts because the Syrian government restricts access. But reports from neutral international organizations confirm a general picture of widespread violence.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry rejected criticism from U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay, who in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly Monday accused Assad of launching an indiscriminate attack on civilians. “The High Commissioner has become a tool in the hands of some countries that are targeting Syria and are ignoring the terrorist crimes committed by armed groups,” it said.

At the United Nations, diplomats said a draft General Assembly resolution, supporting the Arab League plan and calling for the appointment of a joint U.N.-Arab League envoy on Syria, could be put to a vote Wednesday or Thursday.

The resolution, seen by Reuters, is similar to a Security Council draft vetoed by Russia and China on Feb. 4 that condemned the Assad government and called on him to step aside.

There are no vetoes in General Assembly votes and its decisions are not legally binding.

An Arab League proposal that a joint Arab-U.N. peacekeeping mission be sent to Syria elicited a guarded response from Western powers, which are wary of becoming bogged down militarily in Syria. It was rejected by Assad’s government.

Russia, Assad’s main ally and arms supplier, showed little enthusiasm, saying it could not support a peacekeeping mission unless both sides stopped the violence.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Washington that the peacekeeper proposal would be tough to get through, given Russian and Chinese support for Damascus.

The head of Egypt’s influential seat of Islamic learning, Al-Azhar, called Tuesday for bold Arab action to stop the Syrian government’s “hellish killing machine” while scolding China and Russia for blocking a peace plan in the U.N. Security Council.

Grand Imam Ahmad al-Tayeb, head of the Cairo-based institution, also urged Syrian protesters to refrain from turning their struggle into an armed confrontation two days after Arab League diplomats suggested that arming opposition forces could be an option.

“The situation now, brothers, no longer needs statements to condemn and criticize, but it is in desperate need of urgent, serious, and bold action from the Arabs,” Tayeb added, without giving details of what kind of action he sought.

“I call on the human conscience to stop this hellish killing machine that works to shed blood. It must be stopped.”

Meanwhile, the Syrian National Council, the main opposition group, said it would meet Wednesday in Doha to choose a new leader or extend the term of current head Burhan Ghalioun.

“We are meeting tomorrow in Doha to choose a president. There will be several candidates and we want to take an independent decision, without external interference,” SNC spokeswoman Basma Kodmani told AFP by telephone from Doha.

She said the group wanted to make a choice based on who would do the best job and not on “denominational etiquette.”

Kodmani said the council’s rules require it to choose its leader every three months. “In general there is a rotation, but there can be exceptions,” she said.

According to several sources within the SNC, three candidates have emerged for the leadership: Ghalioun, the leader since the SNC’s founding last October, Kodmani and George Sabra, a long-time dissident.

The SNC is hoping to win recognition abroad as Syria’s legitimate authority.