Three Killed in Damascus Province

Three people died in violence overnight in Damascus province, one of them shot dead by regime troops and the other two killed in a blast, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday.

A young man was gunned down by regime troops late on Saturday in the town of Al-Tal, the Britain-based watchdog said, adding that an explosion rocked the Daf al-Shouk area, killing two.

In central Homs province, regime forces shelled Arida village, wounding several people and destroying a number of houses, the Observatory said.

In the eastern province of Deir al-Zour, government troops reportedly carried out a number of raids and made arrests in the town of Al-Quriya.

Several anti-regime demonstrations, meanwhile, took place overnight in Hama province, according to amateur videos posted on YouTube by activists.

It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of such footage.

But activists speaking to AFP via Skype said regime troops opened fire in Al-Haweez and Kafrnbouda villages, and carried out several raids in the villages of Hayalin and Kafr al-Tun.

In Hama's Al-Fihaa neighborhood, an amateur video posted online showed United Nations military observers in Syria visiting what activists said was a mass grave, where people killed by regime troops had been buried.

A total of 17 people were killed in violence across Syria on Saturday, the Observatory said.

According to the watchdog, more than 600 people have died in violence nationwide since a tenuous truce went into effect April 12, which the U.N. observers have been sent to monitor.

The Observatory estimates that more than 11,000 people have been killed in Syria since an anti-regime uprising broke out in March last year.