Syrian security forces shot dead at least 9 villagers they had stopped at a roadblock northwest of the city of Homs, local activists said on Wednesday. The nine were all Sunni Muslims, who form the majority of Syria's population. Their killing follows reports by an activist in Homs and on social networks that nine members of President Bashar al-Assad's minority Alawite sect had been dragged from a bus and killed by gunmen near Homs on Tuesday.
