Deadly assault continues on Syria's Homs

Dozens of people have reportedly been killed in the Syrian city of Homs, as government forces continued a relentless assault on the central city for a sixth day. Activists said on Thursday that the bombardments centered on the neighbourhoods of Bab Amr, Khalidiya and al-Bayyada. Speaking to Al Jazeera from the city, Hadi al-Abdallah, said 12 homes were targeted in Bab Amr, including three inhabited buildings. "Three families were killed when buildings were shelled. The martyrs are women, men and children. The bodies are badly mutilated," he said.

Activists say that hundreds of people have been killed and at least 570 injured since the army started its assault on the city last week. "They targeted my neighbour's house with rockets. I saw it with my own eyes," Omar Shakir, a resident in Bab Amr, told Al Jazeera. "This is the sixth day in a row we are being shelled by rockets, by mortars, by every weapon," he said.

In other parts of the country, activists reported clashes between Syrian troops and army defectors in Idlib, near the border with Turkey.In eastern Deir al-Zor province, machinegun fire wounded dozens of people including women and children in Koriyeh, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that army reinforcements were being sent into the town.

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