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A witness in the city told the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights he saw the bodies of 34 people “who were originally kidnapped earlier today by Shabiha from the neighbourhood uprising against the regime.”

Shabiha is a popular name for state-backed paramilitaries drawn from Mr. Assad’s minority Alawite sect, who are outnumbered by the majority Sunnis about eight to one.

Since the early months of the uprising, the Shabiha have been accused of abductions, assassinations and drive-by shootings across Syria.

Another anti-government activist in Homs said at least 32 more bodies collected in various locations and brought to the state hospital included Assad opponents and supporters.

An activist known as Shadi said the explanation could lie in a cycle of spontaneous revenge killings, not necessarily by organized groups or by groups acting in complicity with the state, but reflecting local traditions of blood feud, exacerbated by divisions of clan and religion.

“For example, the families in one neighbourhood get back the dead bodies of their loved ones,” Shadi said.

“Maybe most just stay home and mourn. But all it takes is for one person to go and say, ‘I want revenge.’ So suddenly you get these cases where some people are taken, are killed …

“And then all you need is for a few people from the other neighbourhood to go back and do the same to the people from the district they think the Shabiha came from.”

Mr. Assad’s government says the violence is being stirred by armed gangs organized and financed from abroad. Several thousand members of its armed forces have defected to the rebels in the past few months.