Syria's army pounded besieged rebel-held areas of Homs today, monitors said, as troops also shocked Qusayr residents with a morning bombardment and 31 people were killed across the country.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that of those killed, 16 were civilians, 11 were regime troops and four were rebels.

Qusayr in the central province of Homs near the Lebanese border, pounded continuously for three months in a bid by regime forces to wipe out the revolt there, suffered renewed shelling early today.

"When they attack in the morning their objective is to cause as many casualties as possible, because they know that's when people are on the streets," an activist who identified himself as Hussein told AFP, adding that the army's goal was to "terrorise the town."

"The result is that people hate the regime more, because that's when the children are playing on the streets and the elderly are having tea at the doors of their homes," he said.

An AFP correspondent saw several members of one family being treated for wounds, including a 13-year-old boy, after a shell exploded 10 metres (yards) away from them.

The boy's T-shirt was soaked in blood as his head bled from a deep cut.

"We were on our way to my mother-in-law's house when the bombs began to fall. We tried to run but a bomb exploded right in front of us," said the boy's father, who was also wounded.

Elsewhere, regime forces pressed their campaign against the Khaldiyeh, Jurat al-Shiah and the Old City neighbourhoods of the central city of Homs, said the Observatory.

Troops clashed with rebels on the edges of besieged areas, including Sultaniyeh, which borders the once rebel-held neighbourhood of Baba Amr, where blasts were also heard.