Four people were killed when Syrian army troops backed by tanks and three helicopters took a prominent mosque that had been controlled by residents in a besieged southern city today, a witness said.

Syrian forces heaped more punishment on the residents of restive towns, detaining hundreds in raids or at checkpoints, firing on people trying to retrieve bodies of anti-government protesters and even shooting holes in rooftop water tanks in a region parched by drought, witnesses said.

SYRIAN forces killed six people yesterday in an attack on protesters in a mosque complex in the southern city of Deraa, and later opened fire on hundreds of youths marching in solidarity, witnesses said.