“Operations this morning in Idlib resulted in two deaths and several wounded by security forces' gunfire,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement. - File Photo

NICOSIA: Security forces killed at least four people on Tuesday as they kept up a crackdown in the northwestern Idlib province bordering Turkey and the flashpoint city of Hama, rights activists said.

“Operations this morning in Idlib resulted in two deaths and several wounded by security forces' gunfire,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement.

“Around a dozen tanks and other armoured vehicles attacked the Binnish and Sarmin areas” of Idlib, the Britain-based group said.

A human rights lawyer, on condition of anonymity, said two other people were also killed as security forces opened fire in the central city of Hama, where some 50 tanks were deployed in the Hilfaya and Tibet al-Imam districts.

The Syrian Observatory also said two others died on Tuesday of their wounds in the city of Deir Ezzor, the largest in eastern Syria.

Intense gunfire was heard in Deir Ezzor - scene of a deadly army assault on Sunday that killed 42 people - “where a woman and a young man died of their wounds,” the Observatory added.

It also said at least 17 people were arrested in a security swoop on the Huweika district of the city.

The latest violence comes as pressure grows on Syria with a visit from the Turkish foreign minister, bearing the message that Ankara “has run out of patience” with the deadly crackdown on anti-regime protests.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has asked Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to press Syria to “return its military to the barracks,” while Damascus has said the minister would himself “receive a firm message” during his visit.

On their Facebook page, Syrian Revolution 2011, an engine of the uprising, activists invited Davutoglu to “come and pray in the mosque” of the capital's Al-Midan area “to find out from close up of the demands of the Syrian people.”

The visit comes after rights activists said security forces shot dead at least eight people in Deir Ezzor on Monday.

The regime's repression of Syria's pro-democracy uprising since mid-March has killed more than 2,050 people, including almost 400 members of the security forces, according to the Syrian Observatory.