Syrian regime attacks rebel-held areas of Homs Warplanes attacked the central Syrian city of Homs for a second day on Sunday, an activist group said, as the government sought to rout rebels from what was once their stronghold. Government forces have been consolidating their hold on central Syria in recent weeks, and at the beginning of June they retook the strategic border town of Qusair with the help of the Lebanese militant group Hizbollah. A few days ago rebels also lost Tel Kalakh, another town in the Homs province bordering Lebanon. While much of Homs city is under the government's control, several episodes of bombardment have failed to prevent the rebels from having a presence in some neighbourhoods. William Hague, the UK foreign secretary, on Sunday urged the Assad regime to stop the assault on the city. "It is clear that Assad is not interested in peace for Syria but rather is prepared to kill tens of thousands of innocent people and deprive millions more of humanitarian aid rather than work for a resolution of this conflict which has already killed too many," he said in a statement. On Saturday, the regime launched what looked like a new offensive, reportedly pounding rebel-held areas with mortars and jets. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition monitoring group, said that aerial attacks on the Old City and Khaldiyeh neighbourhoods continued in to Sunday, though less heavily. The state news agency said that the army had made "major advances" in the Khaldiyeh neighbourhood, killing a number of its opponents and destroying their weapons. The Observatory said, however, that troops had yet to take new territory in Khaldiyeh. Fighting also raged in the north of the country over the weekend. On Saturday Robert Ford, the US ambassador to Syria, said that he was "appalled" at reports that extremist rebels had killed a Christian priest in the northern province of Idlib. Details of the incident have yet to be confirmed, but initial reports are likely to fuel concerns about what extremism in the rebel ranks means for minorities in Syria. An official from the Franciscan order told the Vatican news service that François Mourad was killed during an attack on the Franciscan monastery of St Anthony of Padua in the Idlib village of Ghassaniyeh on June 26. Abuses by the rebels have come under particular scrutiny since the Obama administration announced a few weeks ago that it was preparing to offer direct military support to select groups. Mr Ford's statement, posted on the US embassy's Facebook page, called on Syrians to protect civilians "regardless of ethnicity, gender and religion."