In this image made from amateur video released by the Shaam News Network and accessed Sunday, April 15, 2012, a building is on fire following purported shelling in Homs, Syria. Syrian troops are reported to have shelled residential neighborhoods dominated by rebels in the central city of Homs Sunday, activists said, killing at least three people hours before the first batch of United Nations observers were to arrive in Damascus to shore up a shaky truce. (AP Photo)Obviously, the word "ceasefire" has a different meaning in Arabic.
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian government forces shelled the city of Homs on Sunday and rebels attacked a police station in Aleppo province, resident opposition activists and a rights group said, in more violence four days after a ceasefire was meant to come into effect.
The fighting comes hours before an advance party of United Nations ceasefire monitors is due to arrive in Syria after Russia and China joined the rest of the Security Council on Saturday to authorise their deployment.
"Early this morning we saw a helicopter and a spotter plane fly overhead. Ten minutes later, there was heavy shelling," said Walid al-Fares, an activist living in Khalidiya, one of the neighborhoods where mortars bombs have landed.
Another resident said government loyalists were using heavy machine guns to shoot into the area.
Rami Abdelrahman, head of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said shells were being fired at a rate of one a minute. He said there had also been overnight clashes in rural Aleppo.
"People said they heard explosions and shooting after rebels attacked a police station and then clashed with police," he said.
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