5 Civilians, Several Troops Dead as Syria Clashes Rage

Clashes raged Thursday in Syria between troops and suspected army deserters as more civilians were reportedly killed in the crisis-hit country, a rights group said.

Violence in Syria has intensified in recent weeks as defections from the army reportedly increase, and at least five civilians died in Thursday's violence, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"Violent clashes today pitted troops to gunmen believed to be army deserters" in Burhaniya, near the town of Qusayr in central Homs province, said Rami Abdul Rahman, who heads the rights watchdog.

He quoted residents as saying "several soldiers were killed and wounded and two military vehicles were destroyed," but was unable to give a precise casualty toll.

Abdul Rahman told Agence France Presse power, water and communication had been cut off in Qusayr on Thursday.

The Britain-based Observatory also reported five civilian deaths on Thursday and said a sixth person died of injuries sustained the previous day.

One woman was shot dead Thursday in the district of Deir Baalaba in Homs when her home came under heavy fire and a 25-year-old man was killed when he was hit by a stray bullet in Damir outside Damascus, the watchdog said.

A third civilian was killed and five others wounded in the central Hama region when security forces opened fire on a crowd which gathered outside a military camp to demand the release of villagers detained by the army.

And two young people were killed in the southern province of Daraa, cradle of the anti-regime protests that erupted in mid-March, when security forces opened fire to disperse a protest by students, it said.

The Observatory also reported several protests in the Sahl el-Ghab region of Hama after schoolchildren there were reportedly detained by security forces.

The United Nations estimates more than 3,000 people, including 187 children, have been killed in a fierce crackdown on dissent in Syria.