Syrian troops bombard rebel-held Homs neighborhood

Activists said Saturday that Syrian troops fired mortar rounds at a rebel-held neighborhood in the central city of Homs in apparent preparation to storm the area.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, who is head of the British-Based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the heavily-populated Khaldiyeh neighborhood had been shelled since early Saturday.

The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, posted a video on its Facebook page showing smoke billowing from a residential area it said was in Khaldiyeh.

The neighborhood, one of Homs’ largest, has been under rebel control for months.

Homs has seen some of the heaviest fighting in Syria’s year-long uprising. Government forces crushed a rebel stronghold in Baba Amr neighborhood on March 1.

In related news, Syria’s state-run SANA news agency denied reports that a helicopter pilot had fired on a military building in Aleppo.

Al Arabiya reported on Saturday that a Syrian pilot, with orders to fire on civilian protesters, had defected to Turkey after depleting his munitions on a security installation.

A member of the Syrian National Council confirmed that the pilot had reached Turkey, according to Al Arabiya.