BEIRUT: At least 31 people were killed on Tuesday acrossSyria in clashes between regime forces and rebel troops, including near the border withLebanon, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Britain-based group said 18 of those killed were civilians, 13 of whom died in the centralprovinceofHoms, a rebel stronghold that has been pounded by regime forces for weeks, sending residents fleeing and leaving scores dead.
A total of 13 regular soldiers died on Tuesday in clashes with rebels inHomsand in the northwest Idlib province, the Observatory said.
The fighting in Idlib centred on Saraqeb, where there were unconfirmed reports that 21 local residents detained by regime forces had been killed, it said.
Most of Saraqeb's residents have fled the town in recent days in the face of a fierce assault by regime troops seeking to stamp out insurgents in the area.
"Armed rebels have withdrawn from the town after attacking two security posts," the Observatory said.
InDamascusprovince, heavy gunfire was reported in fields between the capital's Qadam neighbourhood and the town ofDaraya, the Observatory said.
One woman was killed early Tuesday by a stray bullet in theDamascussuburb of Douma and two other women died in Maaret al-Numan in Idlib province.
The Observatory also reported one man killed in intense clashes near the central town ofQusayr, near the border withLebanon, and another civilian killed elsewhere in the country.
Officials said the clashes spilled over intoLebanonas Syrian troops chasing rebels made a brief incursion into a sparsely populated area ofLebanon's eastern Bekaa region.
The border between both countries is poorly demarcated and residents on both sides travel freely across on a regular basis.
Syrian troops have made several brief incursions intoLebanonsince the outbreak of the revolt against the regime of Bashar al-Assad a year ago.
A spokesman for Syrian refugees inLebanon, Ahmed Moussa, told AFP that 75 families had crossed into the eastern Bekaa on Monday.
An AFP correspondent saw three mini-vans filled with women and children fleeing the fighting in Qusayr.
The uprising inSyriabegan as a popular revolt in March of last year but has transformed into an insurgency that many fear will lead to a full-blown civil war.
Monitors say close to 10,000 people, the majority of them civilians, have died in the revolt against Assad's regime.