18 dead as UN slams Syria rights violations

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Five civilians were among 18 people killed in Syria on Saturday, a day after the UN Human Rights Council urged tougher action against Damascus, condemning its 'gross violations' of human rights.

In the northwestern city of Idlib, which has been one of the focal points of the anti-government protests raging since March, rebels clashed with loyalist troops near the provincial headquarters leaving 15 people dead, three of them civilians caught in the crossfire, a human rights group said.

An officer was among seven pro-regime soldiers and security service agents killed, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Five rebel troops also died.

The unprecedented movement against President Bashar al-Assad's regime has been spearheaded by peaceful demonstrators, but in recent months army deserters have organised themselves into a rebel Free Syrian Army which has inflicted growing losses on regular forces.

On Thursday, rebel troops killed eight people and wounded at least 13 in an attack on an air force intelligence base in Idlib province that sparked a three-hour gun battle, the Observatory said.

At a meeting late last month in Turkey, the Free Syrian Army met the civilian opposition Syrian National Council, agreeing to coordinate their efforts to overthrow Assad's regime.

In Daraa province, south of the capital, cradle of the anti-government protests, one civilian was shot dead and five others wounded on Saturday during a sweep by security forces in the town of Tafas, the Observatory said.

It added that two civilians were shot dead, one by a sniper, in the Sunni district of Bab Amro in the restive central city of Homs, another focal point for dissent against Assad's Alawite-led regime.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said more than 4,000 people have been killed in the crackdown since March and tens of thousands arrested. At least 12,400 people are reported to have fled the country.

In Geneva on Friday, an emergency meeting of the Human Rights Council passed a resolution 'strongly condemning the continued widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms by the Syrian authorities.'

Rights council members also agreed in a vote to appoint a special investigator and refer a report on the abuses in Syria to UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon.