Syrian government forces shelled the city of Homs yesterday, resident opposition activists and a rights activist said, as a six-person advance party of UN observers was due to arrive in Syria to monitor a ceasefire meant to start four days ago.

Dozens of civilians in the Syrian city of Homs were killed in cold blood, the government and opposition said yesterday, disputing responsibility for what both sides called a massacre during a visit from UN-Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan.

Makeshift hospitals in besieged opposition areas of the Syrian city of Homs are overflowing with dead and wounded from government bombardments and snipers, according to a report by international monitor Human Rights Watch.

TENS of thousands of Syrians rallied in Homs yesterday against President Bashar al-Assad, emboldened by Arab peace monitors’ first tour of the city, after the army withdrew some tanks following battles that killed 34 people in 24 hours.

A triple bombing hit the main Baghdad office of an anti-Western Shiite cleric today in the deadliest of a series of attacks across Iraq that killed more than 40 people and wounded another 200.