Syrian army shells Rastan, 9 killed: Rebels

Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad shelled the town of Rastan on Syria's main northern highway on Monday, killing at least nine people and wounding 40 in an offensive to retake the area from Free Syrian Army rebels, opposition sources said.

"Shells and rockets have been hitting the town since three a.m. (midnight GMT) at a rate of one a minute. Rastan has been destroyed," an FSA member in the town, 25 kms (15 miles) north of the city of Homs, who declined to be named, told Reuters by satellite phone.