Syrian security forces killed four leading pro-democracy activists in an ambush in northwestern Idlib province on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The activists, who had gone into hiding with armed opponents of the Damascus government, were shot dead in the Zawiya hills close to the border with Turkey, the Britain-based watchdog said, without immediately releasing their names.
Elsewhere, one civilian was killed and seven others wounded during shelling of Bab Hud, a neighbourhood of the flashpoint central city of Homs, said the Observatory. In the eastern protest hub of Deir Ezzor, the body of a young man arrested after being shot during an anti-regime protest was found.
Government troops shot and wounded a soldier who tried to defect at a security checkpoint in Dael, in the restive southern province of Daraa, said the watchdog. The Observatory said security forces killed 13 civilians on Wednesday, adding to a UN estimate of more than 5,400 people who have died since March.
