Syria: government forces use 'indiscriminate force' in city of Homs

Every day for nearly a week, now, rockets and mortars fired by forces loyal to Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad rattle the streets of the central Syrian city of Homs, while rebels ambush government military checkpoints. Syria's third-largest city, Homs has become the major centre of both resistance and reprisal, fuelled in part by increasingly bold army defectors who want to bring down President Bashar Assad's autocratic regime by force. Opposition activists say tanks are now roaming the Baba Amr area of the city, and using indiscriminate force against the local population. Syria's government maintains that the situation in Homs is quiet, and that hospitals are operating normally.