Syrian forces pound Homs despite ceasefire

Four days after a ceasefire was meant to come into effect in Syria, violence persisted on Sunday.Activist video posted to a social media website showed heavy shelling in the battered Homs district of Khalidiya, where activists reported shelling at the rate of one per minute.Activist video footage, reportedly from Khalidiya, showed an explosion shortly after the sound of a missile flying through the air. Another whiz follows, and the cameraman, standing in a nearby building, pans across to show a ball of flames and smoke rising into the air.Another video purportedly showed further shelling in Khalidiya, with buildings seen through a thick cloud of smoke.Reuters is unable to independently verify the content of these videos, which have been obtained from a social media website.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.Syria blames the violence on terrorists seeking to topple President Bashar al-Assad and has repeatedly denied journalists access to the country, making it impossible to independently verify the reports.Although violence has continued throughout the ceasefire, there has been a significant drop in the daily death toll in fighting, which has often killed more than 100 people a day.On Saturday, 14 people were killed in the violence, Abdelrahman said and the state news agency SANA said armed terrorists killed five people in ambushes around the country.A six-person advance party of United Nations (UN) observers is due to arrive in Syria to monitor the ceasefire -- meant to start four days ago.