Activists said at least 17 civilians and seven soldiers were killed yesterday in the latest violence sweeping protest-hit Syria, including deadly clashes near the Lebanese border.

Syria’s leading opposition grouping, the Syrian National Council, meanwhile, threatened to seek foreign intervention to stop the regime’s deadly crackdown against pro-democracy protesters.

Speaking in the Libyan capital, SNC member Najib Ghadbian said they were determined to “bring down” the regime of embattled President Bashar al-Assad, accusing it of seeking to “militarise” the protest movement.

“If the regime continues to be so irresponsible... our main objective is to call for the protection of civilians,” along the lines of a UN no-fly zone set up in Libya that cleared the way to Nato air strikes, he said.

On the home front, 17 civilians were killed in Syria, including three teenage girls and a woman, while at least seven soldiers died in clashes with suspected army defectors, a watchdog group said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said eight people were killed in Homs, central Syria, including four shot dead by pro-regime “shabiha” militiamen.

The other eight civilians were killed in and around the town of Qusayr, near the Lebanese border, where clashes raged between troops and suspected army deserters, the watchdog said.

One woman was hit by a stray bullet while the teenage girls were killed when their home was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade as troops battled the suspected defectors near Qusayr.

Syrian forces raked homes with heavy machine-guns as they raided neighbourhoods searching for suspects wanted by the authorities, the Observer said, adding that around 200 people were arrested in the raids.

One man was killed in a raid by security forces in the northwestern province of Idlib, it said.