19 Civilians Killed in Syria as Shells Rain Down on Homs
Nineteen people were killed across Syria on Tuesday, most of them civilians who died in the heaviest shelling of protest city Homs for days, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"The shelling of the Baba Amr neighborhood began at dawn and is the most intense in five days," the Observatory's Rami Abdel Rahman said, referring to the main rebel stronghold in Homs city.
"Two rockets are falling a minute on average," the head of the Britain-based group told Agence France Presse by phone, citing activists on the ground.
"Six civilians died in the continuous shelling of Baba Amr neighborhood this morning," the Britain-based monitoring group said later in a statement emailed to Agence France Presse.
Elsewhere in the central province of Homs, three farmers who had been detained at a checkpoint were later found dead in the town of Quseir, said the Observatory.
Another three civilians were shot dead during clashes in the town of al-Atareb, in northwestern Aleppo province.
In the southern province of Daraa, cradle of an 11-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's iron-fisted rule, security forces killed one civilian in the town of Nimir.
And in Damascus province, an army deserter died in clashes with the military at Irbin town, the Observatory said.
Five soldiers were killed and nine were wounded during fighting with army deserters at Qalaat al-Madiq, in the central province of Hama.
In southern Daraa province, deserters captured a lieutenant in the town of Lajat and demanded the authorities release prisoners in exchange for his return, it said.
And in the province of Damascus, security forces opened fire on a student demonstration in the town of Maadamiyet Esham, according to the watchdog.
Source: Agence France Presse
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