Syria came under sharp Arab and international condemnation on Monday after gunboats pounded Latakia port, forcing thousands of Palestinians to flee a refugee camp, as activists reported new deaths there.
The Palestinians condemned Syria over the violence as the UN Relief and Works Agency reported that more than 5,000 refugees had fled Ramel camp in southern Latakia under fire and demanded immediate access to the site.
Palestine Liberation Organisation secretary general Yasser Abed Rabbo said the attack on Ramel is "part of the crimes against humanity" targeting Palestinians and Syrians alike.
Jordan, adding its voice to a chorus of Arab condemnation of the Syrian crackdown on dissent, urged Damascus to "immediately" stop the violence and "listen to reason," state-run Petra news agency reported.
US President Barack Obama said his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad has lost his legitimacy and his people "will be better off without him," the White House spokesman said.
Assad "has to cease the systematic violence, mass arrests, and the outright murder of his own people," Jay Carney told reporters.
"The Syrian people deserve a peaceful transition to democracy; they deserve a government that doesn't torture them, arrest them and kill them."
But as the uprising turned five months old, the violence continued unabated.
Troops and tanks clamped down on Monday on the flashpoint province of Homs, targeting the provincial town of Hula where snipers shot dead an elderly man, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
The Britain-based group said four other people were killed in Latakia, including two as they tried to escape the Ramel district.
"The community of Hula is under siege... The army is carrying out raids and arrests under the cover of heavy gunfire," the rights group said.
"Security agents encircled all the entrances to Hula and they started shooting to terrify local residents," it said.
Another rights group said "a large number of tanks entered Hula this morning."
The operation came a day after gunboats joined the pounding of Latakia that killed as many as 26 people, in the first attack from the sea since Syria's anti-regime revolt erupted on March 15, activists said.
The official SANA news agency denied the naval attack and said security forces were battling "armed gangs" in Latakia.
Many residents were allowed to flee the worst-hit districts of Latakia at dawn, but soldiers opened fire at a checkpoint, killing a man, and a woman also died when her car was hit as she tried to leave Ramel, the Observatory said.
The watchdog said two other people were confirmed killed but that the death toll could rise because security forces hosed three other neighbourhoods in the city with heavy machine-gun fire at sunset.
"There are reports of martyrs but we cannot confirm them," it said.
One Latakia resident, declining to be identified, told AFP: "The shooting is coming from security forces on rooftops. They open fire for no reason -- we can't hear any other side shooting back at them."
Chris Gunness, a spokesman for UNWRA which helps Palestinian refugees, said "between five and 10,000 people have fled" Ramel. "We need to get in there and find out what the hell is going on."
"We have called on the Syrian government to give us expeditious and unhindered access for humanitarian workers," Gunness added.
The PLO's Abed Rabbo told AFP: "We strongly condemn the operations of the Syrian forces in raiding and shelling the Palestinian Ramel Camp in Latakia and the displacement of the population."
The attack on Ramel is considered "to be part of the crimes against humanity that have been directed at the Palestinian people and their Syrian brothers who are also the victims of this ongoing bloody campaign," he said.
Syria's neighbours Jordan and Turkey called for an immediate end to the violence.
Jordanian Prime Minister Maaruf Bakhit telephoned his Syrian counterpart Adel Safar and told him "Syria should listen to reason and start implementing reforms," the state news agency Petra reported from Amman.
"World anger and rejection of the bloodshed in Syria are growing," he said.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu said Syria's crackdown on dissent had "intensified" despite his talks last week with Assad in Damascus.
"The operations must end immediately... if not there will (be) nothing for us to discuss" with the Syrian regime, Davutoglu told a news conference in Ankara.
Meanwhile the Local Coordination Committees, an umbrella group of activists, reported that 260 people, including women and children, have been killed since Ramadan began on August 1.
It said in a statement it was able to confirm that since the holy fasting month started there have been "260 martyrs... among them 14 women and 31 children. Two children were two years old."
Syria has repeatedly said it is battling "armed gangs" -- a claim denied by rights groups who say the crackdown has killed 1,827 civilians since mid-March, while 416 security forces also died.
The UN Security Council is due to hold a special meeting on Thursday on Syria, and Human Rights Watch said it had sent a message to Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi urging him to convene an "emergency meeting on Syria."
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