Syrian government air strikes on two rebel-held areas of the central province of Homs killed at least 25 civilians, 11 of them children, a monitoring group said on Sunday.

Sixteen members of a single family were among 18 people killed in raids late Saturday on the town of Talbisseh, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

They included 10 children and three women, said the Britain-based monitoring group which has a wide network of sources inside Syria.

In the Waer district on the outskirts of Homs -- the only area of Syria's third city still in rebel hands -- the evening air strikes killed seven people, including a child, the Observatory added.

Homs was once dubbed "the capital of the revolution" against President Bashar al-Assad.

But government forces retook control of the whole of the rest of the city in May when rebel fighters withdrew from central districts under a UN-brokered deal that ended a punishing two-year siege.

Syria air strikes kill 10 children, 5 women in Aleppo: monitor
Beirut (AFP) Oct 24, 2014 - Ten children and five women have been killed in Syrian government air strikes in the northern province of Aleppo, a monitoring group said Friday.

The children, aged from four to 10, and women were killed Thursday "in barrel bomb strikes by regime helicopters on a home and public hall in the village of Tal Qarrah in the north of Aleppo," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The bombing also destroyed civilian property and wounded several people, some of them critically, the Britain-based Observatory added.

President Bashar al-Assad's air force has carried out near-daily strikes against areas under rebel control in the northern province since last December, killing several hundred people, mostly civilians.

Rights groups have repeatedly criticised the use of barrel bombs, which they say fail to discriminate between civilian and military targets.

In July, Human Rights Watch accused the regime of defying a UN Security Council resolution ordering all sides in Syria's war to stop indiscriminate attacks.

Syria's multi-front war began as a peaceful movement demanding democratic change, but morphed into an all-out civil war after Assad's regime unleashed a brutal crackdown against dissent.

More than 180,000 people have been killed since March 2011, and nearly half the population have fled their homes.