Syrian troops fought army deserters near a southern town overnight following the killing of at least three protesters demonstrating against the arrest of a popular cleric, residents and activists said on Wednesday.
In the latest desertions among conscripts opposed to a military crackdown against months of pro-democracy protests, at least 20 soldiers left their outposts around the town of Hirak, 80 km (50 miles) south of Damascus and clashed with President Bashar al-Assad's forces, they said.
"I saw the bodies of three protesters in the morgue. An exchange of rifle and machinegun fire is going on now between deserters and the army just west of Hirak," said one of the residents, who gave his name as Mohammad.
The fighting came as an armoured offensive against mostly old districts in the central city of Homs entered a third day. The city has been the scene of regular anti-government protests.
At least 32 people have been killed in the last 48 hours in Sunni districts of the city of one million people, where armed inhabitants and defectors battled government forces, residents said.
Activists also reported that thousands of elite Republican Guards and Fourth Division troops, under the command of Assad's brother Maher, combed eastern suburbs of Damascus in a large operation to seize army defectors and activists.
Foreign journalists are largely banned from Syria, making independent confirmation of reported events difficult.
Syrian authorities blame "armed terrorist groups" for the unrest and say 1,100 police and soldiers have been killed. The United Nations says Assad's crackdown has killed 3,000 people, including 187 children.
Assad has sent troops and tanks into restive cities and towns to put down the unrest, but protests have persisted with several thousand army defectors from within the mainly Sunni Muslim rank-and-file army now challenging his rule.
Diplomats and military analysts say moves by Assad, of the minority Alawite sect, to crush the protest movement inspired by the "Arab Spring" that overthrew veteran leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, has fuelled army defections.
Several officers have recently announced their defection, although the bulk of desertions have been Sunni conscripts who usually man roadblocks and form the outer layer of military and secret police rings around restless cities and towns. The officer corps of Syria's army is composed mainly of members of the Alawite community.