Regime forces killed at 26 civilians in Syria yesterday, as they shelled a rebel stronghold of Homs for the 22nd straight day and opened fire on protesters in Hama and Aleppo, monitors said.

The shelling of the neighbourhood of Baba Amr began at first light

The shelling of the neighbourhood of Baba Amr began at first light, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, as sporadic explosions were heard in other areas of the central city.

Nine civilians were killed in Baba Amr and other Homs neighbourhoods, as security forces also opened fire in the inner city quarters of Khaldiyeh and Hamidiyeh, the Britain-based Observatory said.

The Local Coordination Committees opposition group said security forces fired mortars at Khaldiyeh, and posted footage on the internet showing damage at the landmark mosque of Khaled bin al-Waleed, in the centre of Homs.

Three others, including a 14-year-old youth were shot dead at an army checkpoint in the village of Talbeesa, in the province of Homs, the Observatory said.

Security forces shot dead six other people, including a woman and a girl, as they clashed with army defectors in the Aleppo provincial town of Ezaz, the Observatory said.

Five soldiers were killed in Ezaz, it said, adding that heavy gunfire could still be heard there in the afternoon.

Police also opened fire to disperse a demonstration of some 4,000 people who took to the street in the Aleppo city neighbourhood of Sayef al-Dawla for the funeral of a civilian killed on Friday, the Observatory said. An activist who identified herself as Asma said that a large number of people took part in the funeral, including mothers who were carrying their children.

The funeral turned into a protest to demand the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad and his regime, she told AFP on Skype. No casualties were reported so far.

In the central province of Hama, six civilians, including two girls, died when troops stormed the villages of Maarazaf and Al-Majdel, the Observatory said.

Elsewhere in the same province, troops manning a checkpoint shot dead a man and his mother in the town of Mharadeh, it said.

At least 53 people were killed on Friday, as forces loyal to Assad bombarded Baba Amr, attacked villages and opened fire on demonstrators, as tens of thousands rallied across the country.

Twenty-two people had been killed in Baba Amr itself, the Observatory said.

Red Cross and Red Crescent ambulances had entered the besieged district of Homs on Friday and evacuated seven wounded Syrians, as well as 20 women and children.

But the ambulances did not evacuate two wounded Western journalists and the bodies of two others, said Saleh Dabbakeh, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross.

A medical official in Lebanon told AFP that seven wounded Syrians from Baba Amr crossed the border illegally.

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