Troops kill 6 protesters in Hama

Activists say Syrian security forces have fired guns and tear gas at thousands of anti-government protesters in the central city of Hama and killed at least six people.

Several thousand protesters were trying to reach the city's main Assi square to stage a sit-in amid a heavy security presence Wednesday when troops opened fire to disperse them.

Hama-based activist Saleh Abu Kamel told The Associated Press he had the names of six people who were killed and many wounded. The number could not be immediately confirmed.

Activists say they expect a team of Arab League monitors now in Syria to head to Hama on Thursday.

In another development, three Lebanese shot and wounded by Syrian troops as they were crossing into northern Lebanon died of their injuries overnight, a medical official said on Wednesday.

A fourth person was wounded in the shooting but managed to get out of the car in which they were travelling when it was hit by gunfire near an unofficial border crossing at Raydani, the official said.

A witness said Syrian troops had opened fire on a car late Tuesday as it headed towards the Raydani crossing, wounding the passengers.

Three of them, members of the same family, were stuck bleeding in the car for more than 15 minutes before Lebanese army troops and Red Cross rescuers were able to reach them and take them to hospital where they eventually died.

The fourth wounded passenger managed to get out and drag himself to a nearby river that spans Lebanon and Syria, and was later found by Bedouin tribesmen living in nearby tents and rushed to hospital.

The three victims were buried on Wednesday in the northern Lebanese village of Majdal in a funeral procession marked by chants of "There is no god but god" and "Assad is the enemy of God," in reference to embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

After the funeral, around 200 people marched from Majdal to the nearby village of Al-Hishy where they briefly clashed with a Lebanese military patrol, attacking it with sticks and stones.

The latest deaths bring to six the number of people killed since October by Syrian troops during their regular incursions into neighbouring Lebanon, where they have opened fire on border villages.

Lebanon and Syria share a 330-kilometre (205-mile) border but have yet to agree on official demarcation.