NICOSIA: Deserters killed five Syrian army soldiers in a clash on Monday in the flashpoint province of Homs in the centre of the country, activists said.
"Five soldiers of Syria's regular army were killed and 13 others wounded in fighting with a group of deserters at a checkpoint in the village of Al-Ziraa," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Britain-based watchdog, in statements received in Nicosia, also said that security forces had shot dead eight civilians on Sunday: five in the Damascus region, two in Idlib, northwest Syria, and one in Homs province.
Damascus on Monday rejected an Arab League plan for President Bashar al-Assad to transfer power to his deputy, following 10 months of anti-regime protests that have cost thousands of lives in a crackdown by security forces.
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