More U.N. monitors expected in Syria

Government helicopters pounded the besieged city of Homs from the sky, opposition activists said Sunday, three days after a so-called cease-fire in Syria.

The Security Council unanimously agreed to send 300 cease-fire observers to Syria as soon as the U.N. secretary general determines it is safe, as an advance team visited the battered city of Homs for the first time.

Already devastated by weeks of incessant attacks this year, the Syrian city of Homs faced new terror Sunday as pro-regime forces executed 10 young men in the dissident stronghold, opposition activists said.

Syrian rebels on Sunday launched a surprise dawn attack on Baba Amr, a former rebel stronghold in the central city of Homs, a year after it was taken by the army in a bloody battle, a monitoring group said. "At dawn, the rebels launched a surprise attack on Baba Amr, which they have entered," Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman, who was in contact with the rebels, told AFP.

Syrian rebels on Sunday launched a surprise dawn attack on Baba Amr, a former rebel stronghold in the central city of Homs, a year after it was taken by the army in a bloody battle, a monitoring group said. "At dawn, the rebels launched a surprise attack on Baba Amr, which they have entered," Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman, who was in contact with the rebels, told AFP.

Arab League monitors again visit Syria's Homs as a rights group accuses authorities of moving hundreds of detainees to military sites to hide them from the observers.

The U.N. Security Council agreed to send a first wave of observers to monitor Syria's shaky cease-fire, marking the first time council members have all agreed on action there since the conflict began.

Syrian forces targeted opposition neighborhoods Saturday, activists said, days into a fragile cease-fire aimed at ending a bloody crackdown.