Syria accused of civilian "executions"

At least 32 people have been killed on Wednesday in violence in Syria, according to the opposition, including 15 civilians allegedly executed by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.

The alleged executions took place in the dissident city of Homs, reported the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"After regime forces raided overnight the district of Shammas in Homs, the bodies of 15 civilians were found," the Britain-based observatory added in a statement.

"Their field executions were a new massacre perpetrated by the Syrian regime," it added.

Meanwhile, at least four civilians, including three children, were killed in the government's bombardment of a refugee camp in the southern province of Daraa, said the group.

Around 20 people were injured in the pounding and treated in make-shift clinics for fear they would be arrested if they went to government-run hospitals, said activists.

Daraa, located in southern Syria, is the birthplace of the uprising that started in March 2011 against al-Assad's regime.

"The regime forces are using the most brutal ways to kill civilians," said Omar Idlibi, the spokesman for the Local Coordination Committees, which document violence across Syria.

He added that at least four people were killed in the city of al-Rastan in Homs where Syria forces had been shelling the area since the early hours of Wednesday.

Elsewhere, at least nine people were killed in a crackdown by security forces in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in the northern province of Idlib, said activists.

Reports from Syria are hard to independently verify, as authorities bar most foreign media from the country.

More than 12,000 people, mainly civilians, have died since the uprising began in Syria, according to the opposition. The UN estimates the deaths at 9,000.

In neighbouring Lebanon, fighting resumed on Wednesday between supporters and opponents of the Syrian regime in the northern port city of Tripoli.

At least three Lebanese soldiers were injured as they were caught in the crossfire, according to local media.

The fighting, shattering a 24-hour lull, erupted when fighters in the rival districts of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabel Mohsen exchanged gunfire, according to the report.

Army troops have been deployed in the area since the clashes started on Sunday.

The Syrian crisis has divided Lebanon between the opposition, who is backed by Western and Arab countries hostile to al-Assad's regime, and the Shi'ite Lebanese movement, which dominates the Lebanese government and is supported by Damascus and Iran.