Syrian forces killed four civilians on Sunday in shelling of rebel areas and clashed with gunmen, testing a shaky UN-backed ceasefire as international monitors prepared to arrive in the unrest-hit country.
Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad subjected the Khaldiyeh and Bayada neighbourhoods of the flashpoint central city of Homs to their fiercest bombardment since the truce came into force at dawn on Thursday, monitors said.
“The bombardment of Khaldiyeh intensified this morning with an average of three shells a minute,” said head of Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman.
He said one civilian was killed in Khaldiyeh, another was killed in shelling of the Jobar neighbourhood, and a third was shot dead by a sniper in Qsour. Shabiha pro-regime militiamen also shot dead a civilian in the town of Aqrab, in the central province of Hama.
Three civilians died in Homs shelling on Saturday, among 14 people killed nationwide ahead of a UN Security Council vote approving the dispatch of the observer mission to monitor the truce.
Elsewhere, rebel fighters clashed with security forces in al-Bab in the northern province of Aleppo, near the town’s State Security police headquarters, the Observatory said.
A police station there also came under fire, the Britain-based watchdog added.
Opposition group the Local Coordination Committees said the army shelled the village of Khirbet al-Joz in the northern province of Idlib, which is base to fighters from the rebel Free Syrian Army.
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