Syria: Five activists shot dead as regime claims "terrorist ambush" killed four security men

Syria's security forces opened fire on Monday during a ackdown on opposition activists in the town of Houla in central Homs province, activists said. "Five residents, including a woman, were shot dead on Monday by security forces, who have been conducting a sweep in Houla since Sunday," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement, quoted by AFP.

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

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

On its part, Syria's state news agency SANA reported that four law enforcement members were killed and 18 others wounded in an ambush set up by "armed terrorist group" while on their way back to their unit at el-Dahiriyeh crossroads in Hama.

An official source at the governorate told SANA that gunmen opened fire at two buses carrying law-enforcement forces near the crossroads, causing one bus to crash. more