SYRIA (CBS) -- Syrian troops pummeled opposition neighborhoods in the city of Homs with heavy mortars on Wednesday, hours after President Bashar al-Assad assured the United Nations he will respect a ceasefire with rebels due to take effect in less than 24 hours.
Amateur video posted on the internet purportedly showed bombs crashing into the Khalidiya district, the latest target of Assad's drive to crush his opponents after troops overran the besieged rebel stronghold of Baba Amr in Homs a month ago.
Spouts of pulverized debris burst high into the air with each impact and plumes of dust and smoke drifted over the rooftops.
CBS is unable to independently verify the content of these videos, which have been obtained from a social media website. The Syrian government bars most independent media from the country.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a British-based activist information organization, said one person was killed in the morning attacks.
Western powers have scorned Assad's truce pledges to U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, but have come up with no effective policy to curb the bloodshed in Syria, given their own aversion to military intervention and the resistance of Russia and China to any U.N. Security Council action.
Annan's plan is for now the only game in town and the former U.N. chief said it must be given a chance to work. His deadline, endorsed by the Security Council, is for a ceasefire by dawn.
But the Syrian military has so far stayed on the offensive, pursuing assaults on several anti-Assad strongholds, rather than withdrawing, as Annan's plan required them to do on Tuesday (April 10).
Anti-Assad rebels have said they will stop fighting if the Syrian military pulls back and ceases fire as promised.
Assad's forces have killed more than 9,000 people in the past year, according to a U.N. estimate. Damascus says rebels have killed more than 2,600 soldiers and security personnel.