BEIRUT - Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad shelled the battered Syrian city of Homs on Saturday, killing one person, opposition activists said, in the first such shelling since a ceasefire began two days ago. The United Nations Security Council is tentatively scheduled to vote on a Western-Arab draft resolution authorizing an advance U.N. team to monitor the fragile ceasefire which aims to end 13 months of bloodshed during the uprising against Assad. It is still unclear if Russia, one of Assad's allies, can be persuaded to support the draft, which calls on Syria to allow access for a team of up to 30 unarmed military observers and threatens to consider "further steps" if Syria does not comply. "There was shelling last night in the old part of the city, in Jouret al-Shiyah and al-Qarabis. And I have heard eight shells fall in the past hour," Karm Abu Rabea, a resident activist who lives in an adjacent neighborhood, said. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR)said shelling had killed one person and wounded several people overnight. Activist Walid al-Fares showed Reuters footage of a thick pillar of smoke rising next to a mosque minaret and said Syrian forces had fired mortar rounds. The crack of gunfire could also be heard. An opposition source, who asked to remain anonymous as he feared retaliation from his own side, said that army shelling came after rebels ambushed government troops in the city on Friday night.
