Activists: Syrian troops kill 11 in northwest

Beirut: An activist group says Syrian security forces have killed 11 civilians in a northwestern region where the army clashes frequently with anti-regime military defectors.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Tuesday another 26 people were injured in the shootings in two villages on Monday in the restive province of Idlib, which borders Turkey.

In a separate incident in Idlib, Syria's state-run media reported that border guards prevented 15 gunmen from infiltrating from Turkey on Monday. The report said that two infiltrators were killed.

A top UN rights official said Monday that the death toll from Syria's crackdown on a nine-month-old uprising has exceeded 5,000 people.