Syrian President Bashar Assad's security forces fired on protesters in the central province of Homs on Saturday, killing two and injuring eight others as a brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters continued despite international outrage.
The latest incident comes on the heels of an attack that killed 29 people on Friday, and days after Assad claimed he had halted the deadly offensive.
The United States, Canada and European leaders demanded this week that Assad immediately step down and end his attack on Syrian people, who have held months of protests against his regime.
A government-owned newspaper rejected U.S. President Barak Obama's demands for Assad to step down, saying on Saturday that it reveals the "face of the conspiracy" against Damascus.
The daily Al-Thawra newspaper, which speaks for the Syrian regime, said the country would "never permit" any kind of foreign intervention in Syria's internal affairs.
Bassem Mroue, an Associated Press reporter in Beirut, said it is unlikely that sanctions imposed by the U.S. and European countries would do much to change how Syria is governed.
"Syria has never let anyone interfere with its internal affairs in the past and they will not allow it now," Mroue told CTV News Channel on Saturday.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday that military forces shot dead two people in the town of Rastan, near the provincial capital of Homs, including anti-regime protest organizer Mahmoud Ayoub.
The fresh wave of violence comes despite assertions to the U.N. chief this week that Assad's regime had ended its military assault against a five-month-long uprising.
Mroue said thousands of people have been detained over the past week, cutting into the size of public protests.
"Yesterday's demonstrations were not as big as previous ones, but we don't know the reason behind that. It might be because the crackdown is succeeding and thousands of people have been detained over the past week," he said.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said on Saturday military reinforcements were being sent to Homs, Syria's third-largest city and the site of intense anti-government protests.
Sweeping arrests were reported on Saturday in the coastal city of Latakia, the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, and the central flashpoint city of Hama.
With files from The Associated Press
