BEIRUT: Warplanes bombarded rebel positions across strife-torn Syria yesterday, a watchdog said, while fierce clashes raged near the ancient citadel in the central city of Homs.
Fighter jets rained bombs on targets in the southern province of Daraa, on Homs and Hama in the centre, Raqa in the north and Idlib in the northwest, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Rebels meanwhile assaulted a checkpoint near the army-held citadel in the heart of Homs city, killing eight soldiers, the Britain-based Observatory said.
A number of neighbourhoods of Homs been devastated by nine months of a suffocating military siege and an escalated week-long campaign to crush the insurgency there.
Also in Homs, fighting raged for the sixth consecutive day over the symbolic district of Baba Amr, which rebels infiltrated at the weekend in a surprise counter-offensive on an area captured a year ago by
the army. AFP
