Ricardo Garcia Vilanova / AFP - Getty Images

Anti-regime fighters and citizens take a man from a pick-up truck who was wounded during shelling by government forces in the city of Qusayr, southwest of Homs, Syria on June 21, 2012.

The Syrian army was shelling central districts of Homs on Thursday, residents said, after rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad agreed to a temporary truce to allow aid access to the sick and wounded.

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More than 10 days of heavy fighting has left hundreds of civilians stuck in the old city of Homs, unable to leave the battlefield, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Wednesday.

Qusayr, a rebel stronghold nearby, was surrounded by forces loyal to Assad who bombarded the town heavily as helicopters hovered overhead, a journalist in the area said.

-- Reuters and Agence France Presse contributed to this report 

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AFP - Getty Images

Damage and destruction litter a street in the battered city of Qusayr, southwest of Homs in western Syria, on June 20, 2012. The Red Cross said it will try to evacuate hundreds of civilians trapped by fierce fighting in and around the restive city of Homs, as violence killed dozens of people across Syria.