Syria army pounds Homs after 79 killed nationwide

LEBANON: The Syrian army kept up its bombardment of rebel neighbourhoods of the central city of Homs on Monday, activists said, after 79 people were killed in violence across the country the previous day.

Thirty-eight civilians, six of them children, were among Sunday's dead, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The violence also claimed the lives of 13 rebel fighters and 28 government troops, the Britain-based watchdog added.

An activist in Homs told AFP via Skype that many civilians remained trapped in the shelling of the Jourat al-Shiah, Khalidiyeh and Old City neighbourhoods of Syria's third-largest city. "Many neighbourhoods of Homs are still under siege, and it is really hard for us to get food or medicines in," said Khaled al-Tellawy.

"Field doctors are amputating the limbs of the injured because they have no equipment to treat them with, and they can't be smuggled out."

AFP