Girl, soldiers among 26 killed in Syria

NICOSIA: A young girl and six soldiers were among 26 Syrians killed Thursday when security cracked down on protests and in clashes between troops and army deserters, a human rights group said.

The deadly clashes came as protest organisers called for nationwide demonstrations on Friday to demand the Arab League suspend Syria's membership of the pan-Arab group.

The league, under international pressure to act after Syria failed to honour a peace plan and instead stepped up its brutal protest crackdown, is to hold talks Friday ahead of an extraordinary weekend meeting on the crisis.

An eight-year-old girl was among 16 civilians killed by security forces in the besieged central city of Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The bodies of another five missing people were also found in the Homs region, the Observatory said in a statement.

In the northwestern province of Idlib, near the Turkish border, four civilians were killed in raids by the security forces, said the Britain-based watchdog.

Also in Idlib, "at least four soldiers in the regular army were killed at dawn in an attack, headed by armed men - probably deserters - on a military checkpoint in Has region, near Maaret al-Numan town," said the Observatory. (AFP)