Security forces killed three civilians when they stormed houses in southern Syria on Sunday, rights campaigners said, in an intensifying military campaign to crush protests against President Bashar al-Assad.

The three died in the town of al-Hirak, 35 km (20 miles) northeast of the city of Deraa, local activists and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that dozens of people, including three women, had been arrested.

The Observatory said troops also arrested more than 100 people in the Damascus suburb of Mouadamiyah. A Western diplomat said he saw several tanks enter the suburb.

Reuters