Syrian regime airstrikes killed two people and wounded others in the besieged Al-Waer neighborhood in central Homs province, local activists said Monday.
The regime warplanes conducted 12 air raids early Monday as death toll reached 49 over a month of major offensives against the last rebel stronghold in Homs city.
Regime forces have extended their aerial and ground campaign on Al-Waer since Feb. 7, killing at least 49 people and wounding 470 more.
Al-Waer, the last rebel-held neighborhood in the western city of Homs, had for months been spared much of the intense violence raging elsewhere in the country, as the regime tried to conclude an agreement with insurgents there.
Damascus has tried to strike a deal in Al-Waer that would see rebel fighters and their families leave the district and the regime take over. Under similar local agreements in other parts of western Syria rebels have left with light weapons and headed mostly for Idleb province.
The opposition says that such agreements are part of a regime strategy to forcibly displace populations from opposition-held areas after years of siege and bombardment.
In September, some 120 rebel fighters and their families left Al-Waer after an agreement with the government, but there have been no further reports of insurgents leaving. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group estimates that several thousand rebels remain there.
This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
