Syrian security forces and snipers Thursday killed three people, including a teenager, in the central region of Homs and the southern province of Daraa, two hotbeds of dissent, activists said.

"A 15-year-old minor was killed and three people were wounded by security forces during raids," in the town of Dael, near the southern city of Daraa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement.

More than 5,000 people on Wednesday demonstrated in Dael calling for the fall of the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, the Observatory said, adding that 23 people were arrested in the town.

Further north, two civilians were killed in the region of Homs, one shot by sniper fire, the other by security forces, the Britain-based watchdog stated.

The Local Coordination Committees, an activist network spurring protests on the ground, said security forces entered several towns to the east of Damascus looking for people "on the basis of lists".

State television, meanwhile, broadcast images of a huge pro-Assad rally in the coastal city of Latakia, saying the rally showed people's support for Assad's reform programme and their rejection of foreign interference.

Assad on Wednesday received a delegation of Arab League foreign ministers led by Qatar, which announced that a new meeting would take place on Sunday in a bid to find a political solution to the crisis.

The Arab League's visit, which sought to mediate between the regime and the opposition, coincided with a new wave of violence that left at least 27 people, including 11 military, dead in Syria, activists said.

The regime's brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests has killed at least 3,000 people since mid-March, according to UN figures.

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