Seven Syrians killed in 24 hours, say activists

Government security forces in Syria killed seven people across the country over a 24-hour period, activists said Thursday.

Among them is a 28-year-old woman who died under torture in the western city of Khan Shehoun, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Security forces arrested more than 150 others in the industrial Harasta suburb of the capital, Damascus.

Meanwhile four demonstrators were killed in the central city of Homs, and two others were killed in Talbisseh, north of the city. This is according to Local Coordination Committees, which group activists on the ground.

(Read more on GlobalPost: Syria protesters encouraged by success of Libya rebels)

Four European nations and the United States on Wednesday drafted a U.N. resolution for sanctions targeting President Bashar al-Assad and his inner circle.

Agence France-Presse said it targeted those "responsible for or complicit in ordering, controlling, or otherwise directing, violent repression against the civilian population in Syria."

Meanwhile Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a main ally of Assad, called for dialogue between Damascus and the opposition.

The Associated Press said the European Union a day earlier froze the assets of an Iranian military unit, saying it had assisted the Syrian regime's deadly crackdown on protesters.

The U.N. has previously said that Assad's regime could be guilty of crimes against humanity.

It estimates that more than 2,200 people have been killed since protests began in Syria in mid-March.