13 civilians killed as Syrian forces pound Homs: Monitors

Syrian forces shelled neighbourhoods in the flashpoint city of Homs today, killing 13 civilians, monitors said, as regime forces massed around the city raising fears of an imminent ground attack.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that three children and a woman were among 13 people who died in intensive shelling that targeted the Homs neighbourhood of Baba Amr.

The Khaldiyeh and Karm al-Zaytoun sectors were also blitzed, the Britain-based monitoring group said.

Activists have said that in the past few days the regime has been bolstering its forces outside Homs, apparently to storm the city after 18 straight days of siege.

The Observatory said a military convoy of 56 vehicles, including tanks and personnel carriers, were seen today travelling on the highway from Damascus, near the town of Qarah, 70 kilometres (38 miles) south of Homs. It said heavy shelling for two hours early Tuesday of Khaldiyeh and Karm al-Zaytoun later gave way to more sporadic attacks.

Meanwhile, a civilian was killed in gunfire that targeted the town of Al-Atarib, in the northern province of Aleppo, the monitoring group said. Another civilian was killed and five others wounded, when regime forces opened fire at a small bus in the village of Tronba, in the northwest province of Idlib, it added, bringing the toll of people reportedly killed by regime forces Tuesday to 15.

AFP was not able to verify the reported death toll nor the reports of shelling as foreign reporters are given only limited access within the country.

Rights groups say more than 6,000 people have been killed in the regime's crackdown on protests against President Bashar al-Assad's regime that first erupted in march last year.

The Red Cross said yesterday it was in talks with the Syrian authorities and rebels to halt the violence so that it can deliver aid, amid calls to allow women and children out of Homs.