DAMASCUS: The United Nations on Monday condemned the “shocking” brutality of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, as activists said at least 15 people were killed in the latest crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

Dozens of tanks for a second straight day circled towns and villages in the Homs area, north of Damascus.

At least 15 people were shot dead on Sunday and Monday in Rastan and Talbisa, towns in the flashpoint central region of Homs, an activist told AFP, declining to be identified for security reasons.

Among those killed was “a little girl called Hajar al-Khatib. Two bodies were found at dawn on Monday in the Baba Amr neighbourhood of Homs,” which the security forces had closed off with several roadblocks, said the activist, who said he had a list of names.

UN rights chief Navi Pillay condemned the crackdown on Syrian protesters, saying the actions were shocking in their disregard for human rights.

“The brutality and magnitude of measures taken by the governments in Libya and now Syria have been particularly shocking in their outright disregard for basic human rights,” Pillay told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

“Resort to lethal or excessive force against peaceful demonstrators not only violates fundamental rights, including the right to life, but serves to exacerbate tensions and tends to breed a culture of violence,” Pillay said.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) also renewed a call to the Syrian regime to allow a fact-finding mission to visit the country.

Syria's deputy foreign minister, meanwhile, accused Western powers of seeking a return “to the colonial era” in his country by initiating action against Damascus at the United Nations, the official SANA news agency reported.

“It is about imposing hegemony on Syria and using the United Nations as a way of re-establishing colonialism and to justify interference,” Faisal Meqdad said.

At least 13 people were arrested on Monday in the province of Daraa, a hotbed of the unrest, Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported.

“The security forces have encircled Mleiha in Daraa province” and carried out arrests, said Abdel Rahman, adding that he had the names of 13 detainees.

He said activist Ibrahim al-Kurdi, arrested on Saturday in the Salamyeh region of central-northern Syria and accused of “inciting demonstrations,” had begun a hunger strike.

Also on Monday, police were continuing to sweep the Homs region as hundreds of people wounded in the crackdown were hospitalised in the nearby city of Hama.

SANA said four soldiers were killed and 14 wounded by “terrorist groups” in Talbisa on Sunday before a number of them were arrested and a large quantity of weapons seized.

Activists said protesters took to the streets of Hama and Saraqeb, near Idleb in the northwest, during the night to call for the downfall of Assad's regime.

Hundreds of people also marched on Sunday in Douma and Jdaidat, on the outskirts of Damascus, chanting “Allahu Akbar” or “God is greatest,” according to Abdel Rahman.

On Facebook, Syrian pro-democracy activists on Monday called for protesters to burn portraits of Assad.

The latest bloodshed came after security forces killed at least 12 protesters in dispersing demonstrations against Assad's regime last Friday, according to activists.

More than 1,000 people have been killed and 10,000 arrested since the revolt began, human rights groups say. Syrian authorities say 143 soldiers, security forces and police have been killed.