Syrian government forces have carried out crimes against humanity as they try to crush opposition to President Bashar al-Assad in the restive province of Homs, Human Rights Watch has said in a report.
It urged Arab League delegates meeting tomorrow to suspend Syria from their organisation, ask the United Nations to impose sanctions on individuals responsible, and refer Syria to the International Criminal Court.
Activists claimed that security forces killed 20 people today and protesters called on the Arab League to suspend Damascus's membership in response to continued violence.
Activists in Homs said security forces killed nine civilians and one defecting soldier.
The other fatalities were in Hama, the old Roman city of Busra al-Sham in the southern Hauran Plain and in the northern province of Idlib, they said.
"The people want (Syria's) membership to be suspended," shouted a crowd at a rally in the Deir Baalba district of Homs, appealing to the 22-member Arab League to act against Damascus.
''The systematic nature of abuses against civilians in Homs by Syrian government forces, including torture and unlawful killings, constitute crimes against humanity," Human Rights Watch said in a statement accompanying its report.
HRW said Syrian security forces had killed at least 104 people in Homs since 2 November, when the Syrian government agreed an Arab League plan aimed at ending the violence and starting a dialogue with Assad's opponents.
Those deaths followed the killings of at least 587 civilians in Homs between April and August, the group said.
"Homs is a microcosm of the Syrian government's brutality," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.
"The Arab League needs to tell President Assad that violating their agreement has consequences, and that it now supports (UN) Security Council action to end the carnage".
The United Nations says 3,500 people have been killed in Assad's crackdown on protests which erupted in mid-March.
The protests were inspired by popular Arab uprisings, which have toppled three North African leaders.
Authorities blame armed groups for the violence, saying they have killed 1,100 soldiers and police.
Syria has barred most foreign media, making it difficult to verify accounts of opposition activists or officials.
Residents interviewed
Human Rights Watch said it was also refused access to Syria and described the task of obtaining accurate information as "challenging".
Its report was based on interviews with 114 Homs residents, who had either fled to neighbouring countries or who spoke via the internet from inside Syria.
It said security forces had conducted large-scale military operations in several towns in the province, including Homs city and the town of Tel Kelakh on the border with Lebanon.
Typically, security forces used heavy machine guns, including anti-aircraft guns mounted on armoured vehicles, to fire into neighbourhoods to frighten people before entering with armoured personnel carriers and other military vehicles, Human Rights Watch said.
"They cut off communications and established checkpoints restricting movement in and out of neighbourhoods and the delivery of food and medicine".
Thousands of people in Homs - as in the rest of the country - were subjected to arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearances and systematic torture in detention, the group said.
Most were released after several weeks in detention, but several hundred are still missing.
HRW said it had documented 17 deaths in custody in Homs, at least 12 of which were clearly from torture.
"Torture of detainees is rampant," it said, adding it had spoken to 25 former detainees in Homs, all of whom reported being subjected to various forms of torture.
Human Rights Watch said army defections had increased since June and that some residents in Homs had formed "defence committees" armed with guns and even rocket-propelled grenades.
Syria's state media and activists have reported several assassinations in the city over recent weeks of people seen as sympathetic to Assad.
"Violence by protesters or defectors deserves further investigation," Human Rights Watch said.
"However, these incidents by no means justify the disproportionate and systematic use of lethal force against protesters".
