BEIRUT: Seven civilians were killed by regime forces across Syria on Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

Two died from regime gunfire in northwest Idlib province, and another two were killed by sniper fire in the central provinces of Hama and Homs, the Britain-based watchdog said.

In the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, three young men were killed in a dawn ambush by regime forces, the group added. Clashes were also reported overnight between regime troops and rebels in several areas of Hama city, the Observatory said.

In the upscale Damascus neighbourhood of Mazzeh, an activist died from wounds caused by regime forces' gunfire the day before, the Observatory's Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

“Muaath Abbas had been detained four times before he was killed. He was a very important person to the people of the neighbourhood,” said Mazzeh-based activist Abu Muhannad, who was reached via Skype.

“They shot him in his home. Then, after he died, the security forces took his corpse. They haven't returned it. We can't hold a funeral if they don't return his corpse.”

In Ariha village, also in Idlib province, a second civilian died from wounds sustained at the weekend, the Observatory said, while five explosions were heard in Idlib city itself.

The violence took place as Syrians went to the polls on Monday to cast their ballots in the first “multiparty” parliamentary elections in five decades. The opposition has dismissed the vote as a farce.

“The regime is dancing on the corpses of the martyrs. These elections are an insulting lie,” Musaab al-Hamadi, an activist in Hama, told AFP via Skype.

Authorities have blamed the unrest shaking the country since March of last year on “armed terrorist groups” seeking to undermine the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

According to the Observatory, more than 11,100 people have died in the 14 months of violence, most of them civilians.