17 Civilians Shot Dead as Syria Deserters Kill 11 Troops in Daraa

Syrian security forces and pro-regime militias on Sunday shot and killed at least 17 civilians as troops and deserters engaged in deadly battles, activists and a human rights group said.

The latest violence came as the Arab League said its controversial observer mission in Syria would continue despite "harassment" by both the government and the opposition.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said heavy clashes broke out before dawn between the Syrian army and deserters in the southern Daraa province, leaving 11 soldiers dead.

Another 20 soldiers were wounded in the fighting while nine soldiers defected to join the rebel troops, the Britain-based Observatory said in a statement received by Agence France Presse.

It also reported deadly clashes in the village of Basr al-Harir and heavy machinegun exchanges between the army and deserters in the Daraa town of Dael. There was no immediate word on any casualties there.

Cradle of the protests against President Bashar al-Assad that erupted in March, Daraa has been one of the provinces hardest hit by the deadly crackdown unleashed by his regime.

Mutinous soldiers and troops also clashed in the town of Zabadani, northwest of Damascus, the Observatory said, adding that the loyalists "suffered material and human losses" although no details were given.

Meanwhile, the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said security forces shot dead 17 civilians across the country.

Security forces killed 12 people in the flashpoint central province of Homs, four in the countryside around Damascus and a man in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour.

For its part, the Observatory said two civilians were killed by gunfire in the Damascus suburb of Zabadani on Sunday, as security forces raided the town.

The group also said a 15-year-old boy was among seven other civilians killed by gunfire from security forces and pro-regime "shabiha" militiamen in Homs.

And a 19-year-old man was killed in Deir al-Zour, where 30 civilians were also arrested during search operations by regime forces, it added.

The latest deaths came as Arab League foreign ministers met in Cairo to review the observer mission, in the face of growing calls for the bloc to cede to the United Nations the lead role in trying to end the bloodshed.

On Saturday, Syria held funerals for 26 victims of a suicide bombing in Damascus, promising an "iron fist" response.

The opposition pointed the finger for Friday's bomb at the regime itself, as it did after similar attacks in Damascus on December 23 killed 44 people.

Violence in Syria on Saturday claimed the lives of 21 civilians, 17 by security force fire and four by a rocket targeting a pro-regime demonstration, the Observatory said.

The Assad regime has consistently asserted that the unrest sweeping the country is the work of armed rebels, not largely peaceful demonstrators as maintained by Western governments and human rights watchdogs.

After the Damascus bombing, the United States condemned it and again called for Assad to step down, while U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said "all violence is unacceptable and must stop immediately."

The Syrian National Council, an opposition umbrella group which includes the Muslim Brotherhood, said the bombing "clearly bears the regime's fingerprints."

It said the U.N. Security Council had to address the bloodshed, which the world body estimated in December had killed more than 5,000 people since March.

The SNC said "a joint effort between the Arab League and the United Nations Security Council represents a first step toward the urgent and necessary measures to assure the protection of civilians, and to ensure that the regime does not commit additional bombings and killings."

So far veto-wielding Security Council permanent members Beijing and Moscow have blocked efforts by Western governments to secure U.N. action against Damascus.

On Sunday, a large Russian naval flotilla led by an aircraft carrier was docked in the Syrian port of Tartus in what state media hailed as a show of solidarity by its Cold War ally.