Some of the victims were killed in Talbisa when security forces fired on mourners at a funeral on April 16, opposition sources said.

Forces also raided homes and shot many people on the streets in Talbisa, said Wissam Tarif, a rights activist.

Five people were killed in the city of Latakia and 40 were injured, Tarif said. Many of the wounded were then kidnapped from a hospital and taken to a military base in Latakia. In the city of Homs, near Talbisa, eight people were killed, including a 17-year-old boy, and 21 people were injured, Tarif said.

Syrian state-run news agency SANA carried a story on April 17 saying that a policeman "was martyred and 11 police and security personnel were injured on April 16 when a group of armed criminals opened fire on them in the town of Talbisa near Homs."

Protests against the Syrian government began in mid-March amid the wave of unrest sweeping through the Arab world.

Human Rights Watch issued a report Friday detailing "torture and ill-treatment" of protesters over the past month, and United Nations' human rights experts released a statement deploring the crackdown on peaceful demonstrations.