Death toll in Syria violence hits 33

NICOSIA: The death toll from a fresh surge of violence in Syrian flashpoints has risen to 33, rights activists said Wednesday, adding that among the dead are six children and teenagers and five army defectors.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement received in Nicosia that 28 civilians were killed on Tuesday by security force gunfire, in addition to the five defectors.

The Britain-based rights group had previously given a toll of 17 dead on Tuesday, including five boys in the flashpoint central province of Homs and a 12-year-old in the east.