Syrian Warplanes Strike Homs District

Syrian warplanes carried out eight airstrikes in a rebel-held district of the mostly government-controlled city of Homs on Thursday, a military media unit run by government ally Hezbollah said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitoring group, said the airstrikes killed two civilians and wounded more than 24 people in al-Waer, as U.N.-sponsored peace talks continued in Geneva.

Although Homs, an early center of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, has been almost entirely held by the government since 2014, al-Waer, a western district, remains in rebel hands.

Rebel shelling killed two people and wounded six in the government-held district of al-Zahra on Thursday, the Observatory said.

On Saturday, suicide bombers from the jihadist Tahrir al-Sham alliance killed dozens of people in central Homs, including the city's military security chief.

Fighting and airstrikes in Syria have continued despite a nationwide ceasefire brokered at the beginning of the year by Russia, Assad's main ally, and Turkey, a leading supporter of the rebels.

Assad is backed in the war by Russia's air force, Iran and Shi'ite militias including Hezbollah. The array of mostly Sunni rebel groups also include factions supported by the Gulf monarchies and the United States.