At least 17 people have been shot dead in Syria, activists say, as security forces continued their brutal crackdown on a popular protest against President Bashar al-Assad.
The alleged deaths came as a pro-government rally drew massive support in the northern city of Aleppo.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Wednesday that 17 civilians were killed in Syria, including three teenage girls and a woman, while at least seven soldiers died in clashes with suspected army defectors.
The watchdog group said eight people were killed in Homs, central Syria, including four shot dead by Shabiha, an armed civilian group that supports Assad's government.
The other eight civilians were killed in and around the town of Qusayr, near the Lebanese border, where clashes raged between troops and suspected army deserters.
One woman was hit by a stray bullet while the teenage girls were killed when their home was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade as troops battled the suspected defectors near Qusayr.
Syrian forces raked homes with heavy machine-guns as they raided neighbourhoods searching for suspects wanted by the authorities, the Observatory said, adding that around 200 people were arrested in the raids.
One man was killed in a raid by security forces in the northwestern province of Idlib, it added.
The Observatory also reported that at least seven Syrian soldiers were killed and others wounded in clashes with suspected army defectors in the village of Jussiyeh near Qusayr.
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