Foundation for Defense of Democracies

Six people were killed early on Wednesday near the Syrian city of Hama after their car was hit by a mortar shell, Al Arabiya reported citing activists at the Syrian Coordination Committees. The new deaths raise the death toll of violent crackdown on protesters within the past 24 hours to 47 people, mostly in Idlib, Al Arabiya said.

The bloodshed in the northern province of Idlib, which borders Turkey, highlighted the accelerating violence in Syria where an insurgency has begun to overshadow what started as peaceful street protests against President Bashar al-Assad’s 11-year rule.

Also, at least eight soldiers were killed by Syrian army defectors when their convoy was ambushed in the restive province of Hama on Wednesday, activists said.