UN updates Syrian conflict-toll to more than 9000

Three Syrian government soldiers were killed Wednesday in fighting in Homs city, said a rights group. Sixteen government soldiers were injured in clashes in the town of Al-Rastan in Homs, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Four rebels were also injured in the fighting, the latest in a series of clashes between both sides, according to the observatory. Elsewhere, similar clashes flared up between rebels and government forces in Daraa city, the observatory was quoted as disclosing by DPA. The violence comes despite an announcement by the Syrian government on Tuesday that it has accepted a proposed peace plan by international envoy Kofi Annan to end the conflict, in which, according to the United Nations, more than 9,000 have been killed since fighting started in March 2011.