There are reports that at least 50 people, including four children, have been killed by government forces across Syria, 30 of them during a heavy bombardment of the city of Homs.

Tom Coghlan, defence correspondent for the Times, describes the scene in the Homs district of Al-Qusayr.

He told the Today programmes James Naughtie that the area was being bombarded daily and he witnessed mortar strikes which killed two boys aged 10 and 13 who were sitting in a yard.

The army is using indiscriminate force against civilian population, he said, and the regime believes it can "kill its way back" to level of control it had before the uprising.

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