Syria troops shell Homs despite truce

BEIRUT: Syrian troops shelled two neighbourhoods of the flashpoint central city of Homs on Saturday, even as a hard-won UN-backed ceasefire entered its third day, monitors said.

There was no immediate word on any casualties from the hour-long morning bombardment of the city's Jurat al-Shayah and Al-Qarabis neighbourhoods, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Baba Amr district of Homs became a symbol of the protest movement against President Bashar al-Assad's regime launched in March last year when it came under a devastating month-long pounding before being overrun by government forces at the beginning of last month.

The UN Security Council was to vote later on Saturday on a Western-drafted resolution allowing a ceasefire observer mission in Syria even though Russia's support remained in doubt.

The United States called for the vote after a second day of wrangling with Russia over security guarantees for the first 30 unarmed military monitors that UN-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan wants in Syria early next week.