At least 48 people have been killed in Syrian government air strikes on opposition-held towns in the Homs province, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Wednesday.
Bombardments over two days on the town of Talbiseh, left civilians, including women and children killed, alongside a dozen opposition fighters said the group. The death toll was expected to rise as the rubble from the attacks was being cleared. The Syrian government though, claims it was targeting a meeting of “terrorists”.
Describing the scene in Talbiseh, a local activist group wrote in a Facebook post that,
“Residents woke up from the massacre [on Monday] only to witness another terrifying massacre [on Tuesday]"
The post went on to add that Talbiseh was "filled with civilians and displaced who cannot find bread to eat, chased by the shelling of regime forces".
The city of Homs, which was the centre of the anti-Syrian government uprising, was abandoned by opposition forces in May this year, as government troops advanced.
The strikes come after fighters from the Islamic State claim to have downed a Syrian military jet using anti-aircraft guns. See more from the Middle East Eye here.
Also see our previous post:
UN panel highlights Assad atrocities in Syria (16 September 2014)