More than 3,000 people have been killed since anti-regime protests erupted in Syria Security forces killed four civilians as anti-regime demonstrations were staged across Syria on Sunday, the first day of the Muslim feast marking the end of the hajj, a human rights group said. Three of the civilians were killed in Homs, the flashpoint central city where protests against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad were held in most districts despite a weeks-long military crackdown.
In Homs, "a civilian was killed by security forces gunfire in Bab Dreibi district, another died in shelling in Baba Amro... and a third was killed by snipers," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement received in Nicosia.
Security forces also shot dead another civilian in the city of Hama, which lies further to the north.
And in Talbi, a town near Homs, "four protesters were wounded, one seriously, when the security forces fired on a demonstration," said the Britain-based Observatory.
"Dozens of people were injured by security forces who shot at a major demonstration in Kafruma, an area of the province of Idlib, in the northwest of Syria," it added.
Armed forces stormed and surrounded the villages of Zamalka and Irbin, in the province of Damascus, said the Local Coordination Committees (LLC), an activist network spurring protests in Syria.
The latest reported crackdown on protests came as Syrian state radio reported President Assad attended Al-Nur mosque in the northern town of Raqqa for prayers on Sunday morning to mark Eid al-Adha.
But following the morning prayers, marches were held across the country in support of Homs and against the regime, said both the Observatory and the LCC.
As well as Idlib, people took to the streets of Daraa, the cradle of the revolt in the south, Deir Ezzor in the east, Syria's second city of Aleppo and the Qabun district of Damascus, where security forces opened fire.
On Saturday, at least 10 people were killed as Syria released more than 550 people who were arrested during anti-regime protests to mark the Eid al-Adha feast.
Damascus also condemned Washington for "blatant interference" after the US State Department suggested Syrians reject an amnesty offered by the regime to lay down their arms.
Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said, meanwhile, that failure of the peace deal agreed on Wednesday would be catastrophic and demanded an immediate end to the bloodshed.
The Arab roadmap calls for an end to violence, the release of those detained, the withdrawal of the army from urban areas and free movement for observers and the media, as well as talks between the regime and opposition.
The death toll since it was agreed has topped 50, with the United Nations estimating that more than 3,000 people have been killed in a brutal crackdown since anti-regime protests erupted in mid-March.