Security forces shot dead at least 17 people in and around the central city of Hama on Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human rights said.
“The toll of victims from the operation mounted by security forces and the army in the Hama area has risen to 17 dead,” the Britain-based group said in Cyprus.
More than 60 people were arrested, the Observatory said.
The latest violence comes after pro-democracy activists called for a “day of anger” on Tuesday in protest at Russia’s backing for President Bashar Assad.
“Do not support the killers. Do not kill the Syrians with your position” in favor of the regime, activists urged Russia in a posting on The Syrian Revolution 2011, a Facebook page that has been the engine for the revolt.
They wrote that a “day of anger” against Russia would be held on Tuesday with demonstrations across the country.
“We express our anger toward Russia and the Russian government. The regime will disappear, but the people will live,” the posting said.
Russia has blocked attempts by the United Nations to sanction Assad’s regime and is promoting a separate draft resolution that simply calls on the government and the opposition to open direct talks.
Medvedev said recent US and European sanctions on Syria meant “additional pressure now is absolutely not needed in this direction.”
Russia and China, veto-wielding members of the Security Council, have resisted efforts by Washington and its European allies to step up the international response to Syria’s repression of nearly six months of protests.
Damascus blames armed groups for the violence. Assad’s media adviser Bouthaina Shaaban, speaking on a trip to Moscow on Monday, gave a lower death toll than the United Nations and said half of the fatalities were among security forces.
“According to our information, 700 people were killed on the side of the army and police and 700 on the side of the insurgents,” Shaaban told reporters through a translator.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said the United Nations figure was based on “reliable sources on the ground.”
“The number of those killed since the onset of the unrest in mid-March ... has now reached at least 2,600,” Pillay told the UN Human Rights Council.
She did not identify the sources. Syria has barred Pillay’s investigation team and most foreign journalists from entering the country. Syria had also repeatedly blocked UN efforts to get human rights monitors into the country, UN humanitarian affairs chief Valerie Amos said.
Syrian demonstrators have demanded international protection to stop civilian killings, but there has been no hint in the West of any appetite for military action along the lines of the NATO bombing that helped topple Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi.
After talks in Damascus with Assad, Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby said they had agreed on a series of measures that he would present to league member states to help end the violence.
