Rights Group: 38 Killed in 24 Hrs in Syria’s Jisr Shughour

Thirty-eight people, including six members of the Syrian security forces, were killed in 24 hours during clashes in the northwest town of Jisr Shughour, a Syrian rights activist said on Sunday.

"Thirty-eight people were killed in shootings in the region of Jisr Shughour, 10 yesterday and 28 today," Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told Agence France Presse.

He had earlier given a toll of 25 -- 19 civilians and six security agents -- but said that number could rise as military and security forces continued operations in the northwest Idlib province.

On Saturday, an activist in Jisr Shughour said "security forces opened fire to scatter more than 1,000 demonstrators protesting after the funeral of a civilian killed on Friday" in protests at the nearby village of Has.

Syria's official SANA news agency reported at the time that "a member of the army was killed and a policeman injured in clashes" in Jisr Shughour.

"Armed groups attacked a police station and military barracks in the area" and one assailant was killed, SANA said.

Rights groups say more than 1,100 civilians have been killed and at least 10,000 arrested in Syria since protests erupted in mid-March.

Damascus insists that the unrest is the work of "armed terrorist gangs" backed by Islamists and foreign agitators.