Assad's forces kill top rebel commander in Al Zara, Homs

The military commander of Jund al-Islam, Faisal Dawood Okla, has been killed by forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad in the besieged village of al-Zara in Homs province, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday.

Okla escaped from the Lebanese prison, Roumyeh in October 2012.

Meanwhile, violent clashes between Islamist rebels against regime forces and its backed militia National Defence Forces (NDF) in al-Zara village, amid regime airforce bombardment on the village, SOHR said.

An 18 year old girl was killed, and reports of others injured, after regime machine-gun fire on the edges of al-Dar al-Kabira. The airforce bombarded the besieged neighbourhoods of Homs more than 6 times.

Syria's nearly three-year conflict began as popular protests against four decades of Assad family rule but changed into armed insurgency under a security force crackdown.

Now the major Arab state is in a full-scale civil war that has killed more than 140,000 people and forced over 6 million - more than a quarter of the population - to flee their homes.