More Than 30 Killed in Syria, Including 15 Security Personnel

More than 30 people were killed in acts of violence in Syria on Wednesday, including 15 members of the Syrian security forces killed in attacks by army deserters, a rights group said.

Deserters killed 15 members of the security forces in two operations in the flashpoint central province of Hama, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"A group of deserters blew up a device as a military van and a vehicle passed by in al-Madiq area, killing seven soldiers," the Britain-based watchdog said.

Eight other security personnel were killed in a similar attack on a convoy carrying security agents and pro-regime militiamen on the road between Qaalet al-Madiq and Sqailbiyeh, it added in a statement received by Agence France Presse.

The Observatory said the attacks were carried out "in response to the massacre of 11 workers" earlier in the day by a pro-regime group in Homs, another province in central Syria which has been a center of dissent.

The gunmen stormed a factory in the restive province, killing the 11, while security forces shot dead eight civilians in several Homs neighborhoods, the rights watchdog said.

The Syrian regime has repeatedly said it is fighting "armed terrorists" and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad pledged to carry out reforms but stressed he will not make changes amid chaos.

More than 3,000 people have died in the government's bloody crackdown on the unprecedented protests against Assad's rule which broke out in mid-March, according to U.N. figures.