11 Killed in Syria Violence as Blast Rocks Mezzah Military Airport

Two civilians were among at least 11 people killed in Syria on Saturday as U.N. observers monitoring a shaky ceasefire toured the restive city of Homs, a monitoring group reported.

The report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights came as the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to dispatch 300 observers to Syria for a 90-day period to help bolster an April 12 truce.

A sniper shot dead a woman in the town of Qusayr near the Lebanese border in Homs province, the Britain-based Observatory said.

Another civilian was killed in unclear circumstances in the southern province of Daraa, as regime forces carried out raids in the area, cradle of the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime, it said.

Nine army deserters were killed in an ambush by government forces in the northern province of Aleppo, the Observatory added.

Meanwhile "a loud explosion was heard Saturday at Mazzeh military airport in Damascus," the Observatory reported, as activists told Agence France Presse the army blocked a road leading to the base and snipers were deployed on rooftops.

In other violence, an "armed terrorist group" on Saturday blew up a section of an oil pipeline in the Deir al-Zour region of northeast Syria, SANA said.

Monitors say more than 200 people have been killed in Syria since the shaky ceasefire to which the government and rebels committed themselves went into effect, including 46 on Friday.

According to the United Nations, more than 9,000 people have been killed in the 13-month crackdown on dissent against Assad's rule.