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.