Snipers kill six civilians in Sana'a as Syrian forces gather

Sana'a: Snipers and security forces killed six civilians in Sana'a on Monday, a day after deadly clashes in the Yemeni capital left 26 people dead, witnesses said.

Snipers deployed on rooftops around Change Square, the epicentre of anti-regime protests in Sana'a, killed three passers-by while security forces and regime supporters killed three others a few kilometres away, witnesses said.

Forces mass in Dara'a

Security forces massed in the flashpoint province of Daraa, where demonstrations against President Bashar Al Assad's regime first erupted six months ago, activists said on Monday.

"More than 30 buses carrying members of the security forces on Sunday night entered Dael (village), where they have since arrested 45 people," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The massive deployment came after protests were held across Syria on Sunday, said the Britain-based Observatory.

Protester dies of wounds

A 26-year-old man died of his wounds on Monday after being among a group of people whom security forces shot at the night before in the town of Irbin, near Damascus.

Elsewhere, security forces also fired at hundreds of demonstrators in the towns of Qusayr and Talbisseh, in central Homs province, said the activist group.

The forces conducted a campaign of arrests in Aleppo, the country's second-largest city, eastern Deir Ezzor and the coastal cities of Latakia and Banias, it added.

Opponents of President Assad vowed on Sunday to overthrow his regime.

Tyranny

"We need to end the tyrannical security regime. We must overthrow the tyranny and the security (agents)," Hassan Abdul Azim, a senior member of the opposition National Coordinating Committee for Democratic change, told reporters.

Assad told a delegation of visiting Russian lawmakers meanwhile that he welcomes the "balanced and constructive Russian position toward the security and stability of Syria," the state-run SANA news agency reported.

Syria has been rocked by protests against Assad's regime that began in Dara'a on March 15 and triggered a brutal crackdown in which the United Nations says 2,600 people have been killed.