At least 40 people have been killed in anti-government protests in Syria since Friday, activists said, as the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was due to meet senior Syrian officials in the capital, Damascus.
Security forces shot dead three people in the Khan Sheikhwan area of Idlib province in northwestern Syria on Sunday, the Local Coordination Committees, which groups anti-regime activists on the ground, told the AFP news agency.
"Security forces, backed by the army, carried out an incursion in Khan Sheikhwan and opened fire, killing three people," the LCC said.
The LCC said security forces had surrounded hospitals "to prevent the wounded from being brought in for treatment".
Activist groups told Al Jazeera that at least seven people died on Saturday, with four of those killed in Idlib, including one soldier who refused to open fire on protesters.
One person was killed in Hama, another in Kaseer near Homs, and one more died in Zamalka from injuries sustained on Friday, the activists said.
Another person died on Sunday in Teblisi, also from injuries sustained during a protest on Friday, activists said.
Jakob Kellenberger, the ICRC chief who arrived on Saturday, is expected to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and other officials on Sunday with the international organization seeking access to prisons where thousands of activists and other civilians arrested in anti-government protests are believed to be held.
"The ICRC visits detainees in order to assess the conditions in which they are being held and the treatment they receive," the ICRC said in a statement on Saturday, adding that Kellenberger would also raise the issue of enhanced access to areas of unrest.
"Ensuring that the sick and the wounded have access to medical care will be among the particularly urgent humanitarian challenges to be addressed with the Syrian authorities," the ICRC said.
For prison visits, the ICRC has insisted on its standard terms, including full access to all detention centers, the right to interview detainees in private and make follow-up visits.
The ICRC sought access for years to Syrian prisoners but stepped up its requests when the uprising first erupted in March.
Syrian authorities have consistently blamed the unrest on "armed gangs and terrorists". SANA, the state news agency, said that an "armed terrorist gang" ambushed a bus near Hama on Sunday morning, killing nine people, including one officer and five non-commissioned officers.
"Nine people, among them an officer, were killed and 17 others wounded this morning in Maharda in an ambush by an armed group who opened fire on a bus carrying soldiers and laborers going to work," SANA said.
PHOTO CAPTION
An image taken from YouTube on September 2, shows protesters chanting slogans during the funeral of a Syrian allegedly killed by security forces.
Al-Jazeera