Syrian armed forces continue the bombardment against the city of Homs

Hundreds of people have been reported killed since last Friday in a steady rain of rockets, mortars and machine-gun fire.

Activists said that at least 40 tanks and 50 infantry fighting vehicles accompanied by 1,000 soldiers were transported from the nearby border with Lebanon and from the coast and deployed in Homs.

Large Sunni neighborhoods that have been the target of the heaviest rocket and mortar bombardment by Alawite-led forces loyal to Assad remained without electricity and water and basic supplies were running low, activists in Homs said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says at least 12 people were killed Thursday morning but an exact death toll couldn't immediately be determined because of the chaos in the city.

President Bashar Assad's regime is trying to crush pockets of dissent in the city of 1 million people. Many areas have been under the control of army defectors who want to bring down the regime by force.