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Summary Syrian security forces killed six anti-government activists as a Russian envoy visited Damascus.
Syrian security forces killed six people, activists said as a Russian envoy visited Damascus and the EU moved to ban oil imports from the country over its brutal crackdown on protesters.A child was among five people killed when troops and security forces opened fire during search operations in the Sarmin district of northwestern Idlib province, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.One person died when part of his home was levelled as forces raked houses in Sarmin with heavy machine-gun fire, said the head of the Britain-based Observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman.At least 60 people were also wounded in Sarmin and six houses were partly destroyed, he said.A sixth person was killed when security forces raided his home at dawn in the town of Qara outside Damascus during an arrest operation, the Local Coordination Committees reported.Around 10 trucks and armoured vehicles rumbled into Qara, said the group which organises anti-regime protests and has militants on the ground across Syria.It said about 40 people whose names were on a wanted list were detained.Meanwhile, troops backed by tanks and personnel carriers early on Monday stormed the village of Hit, two kilometres (1.2 miles) from the border with Lebanon, south of the central city of Homs, Abdel Rahman said.Witnesses across the border said dozens of Syrian refugees poured into northern Lebanon on Monday as gunfire was heard and smoke billowed over the frontier.The latest bloodshed came as a senior Russian envoy said after talks in Damascus on Monday that there was no change in Moscows policy on Syria which has been opposed to Western calls for sanctions, Syrian state media said.Russias position on Syria is unchanged, deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov was quoted as saying.The envoy affirmed his countrys support for the reforms launched by Syria in the political and economic fields and expressed hope that its security and stability would be maintained, the agency added.The Russian envoy, who held talks with both President Bashar al-Assad and Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, underlined the importance of continued coordination between the two countries in all fields.Moscow staunchly opposes attempts by Western governments to push through a UN Security Council resolution targeting Assad, and has circulated an alternative draft urging Syria to expedite reforms.Britain, France, Germany, Portugal and the United States drew up their draft resolution last week but Russia and China have refused to attend informal talks on the document.The European Union reached an agreement in principle to ban oil imports from Syria to punish the regime for its crackdown on protesters, diplomats said.
