NGO: Three Killed in Syria, Including Baath Party Official
Syrian troops killed a civilian and an army defector, a watchdog said, adding that anti-regime demonstrations were held in several areas of northwestern and central Syria on Sunday.
"A civilian was killed after he suffered gunshot wounds from regime troops, who were raiding Hasraya village" in the central province of Homs, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Right said.
In Basra al-Sham city of southern Daraa province, an army defector was killed in an overnight ambush by regime forces, the Observatory said.
In Jisr al-Shughour in northwest Idlib, a flashpoint of unrest, armed men assassinated a Baath party official, the monitor said, amid a marked increase of assassinations targeting people associated with the regime.
"There is definitely an increase in assassinations targeting people associated with the regime, be they officials or pro-regime businessmen," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP by telephone.
The monitoring group also said that fresh demonstrations took place in several areas of northwest Idlib and in Hama calling for the ouster of President Bashar Assad's regime.
In Daraa province, demonstrations were also held calling for the release of activist and citizen journalist Mohammed al-Hariri, who according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has been sentenced to death for "high treason."
Hariri was arrested on April 16, RSF said, after he gave an interview to Saudi-owned pan-Arab television channel Al-Jazeera from his home in Daraa province.
The latest demonstrations took place after fierce fighting between regime troops and armed rebels rocked parts of the Syrian capital Damascus overnight, the Observatory said.
"Violent clashes broke out between rebel fighters and regime troops at a checkpoint in Kafr Sousa district," it added.
The Local Coordination Committees, an anti-regime network of activists on the ground in Syria, said that in the wake of the fighting, Kafr Sousa in the south of the capital saw the "arrival of huge reinforcements" of regime troops.
Clashes also broke out in others parts of southern Damascus, the Observatory said, adding that gunfire had during the night echoed across the city center.
On Saturday, 23 people were killed in violence across Syria, the Observatory said.
More than 12,000 people, the majority of them civilians, have died in Syria since an anti-regime revolt broke out in March 2011, according to the monitoring group.
Source: Agence France Presse
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