* Syrians kidnapped, killed and dumped
* Militias killing more than army in Homs
By Douglas Hamilton and Erika Solomon
BEIRUT, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Shadowy death squads are operating in Syria's flashpoint city of Homs, according to accounts from anti-government activists in the country, from which foreign reporters are officially banned.
In the past two days, more people were killed in mysterious circumstances than by the state security forces firing in the streets, activists and residents say. Yet very little is known for certain about who is behind such killings, which appear to have targeted government supporters, as well as opponents.
Along with a rise in ambushes and bomb attacks by military defectors who have set up a "Free Syrian Army", the emergence of irregular militias has complicated what began in March as a popular revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, inspired by unarmed demonstrators who led Arab Spring protests elsewhere.
U.N. officials say Syria is close to "civil war". There are also fears that sectarian divisions could deepen the conflict, as happened in recent years in neighbouring Iraq.
Available reports offer only a partial explanation of who stood behind the kidnapping and murder of over 60 Syrians whose bodies were dumped on Monday in two separate places in Homs.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights quoted a witness in Homs as saying on Monday 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 Assad's minority Alawite sect, who are outnumbered about eight to one by Syria's Sunni Muslim people.
Since the early months of the uprising, the Shabiha have been accused of abductions, assassinations and drive-by shootings in a number of Syria's most divided cities and towns.
Another anti-government activist in Homs, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at least 32 more bodies collected in various locations and brought to the state hospital in the city on Monday included both opponents and supporters of Assad.
An activist known as Shadi said the explanation could lie in a cycle of spontaneous revenge killings, not necessarily by organised 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," he said.
SNIPER FIRE
Assad's government says the violent unrest is being stirred by armed gangs organised and financed from abroad. Several thousand members of its armed forces have defected to the rebels in the past few months.
In a rare international television report from inside Homs, a correspondent for Britain's Sky News said on Tuesday that Assad "uses militia to attack" his opponents and protesters.
"The Shabiha militia don't care who they kill, all they want to see is blood. They'll kill an old man, a young child, an old lady. They don't care. All they want to see is blood," a Free Syrian Army soldier told Sky on camera.
The soldier, wearing camouflage and manning a heavy machinegun, was filmed in a sandbagged position which Sky said was just 100 metres from government troops in a Homs suburb.
"There's a real Sarajevo feeling about this," correspondent Stuart Ramsay said. Nine people had been killed in one week by sniper fire on a dusty city suburb crossroads "and not one of them was armed", he added.
His report showed Syrians running across open ground from the shelter of one building to another, in scenes reminiscent of the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s Bosnia war. The report said there was sniper and automatic arms fire, night and day.
But less evident are the abductions, and who is behind them.
"Everyone is talking about the kidnappings and killings that happened. There are rumours flying everywhere. How many were killed? How many were taken? Why were they taken?" another young man living in Homs told Reuters by telephone.
"No one can actually really know because everyone is staying home. Who knows what is true?"
Calling Monday "one of the deadliest days since the start of the Syrian revolution", the Observatory for Human Rights added up the 34 bodies seen by its witness with 16 more killed in half a dozen separate incidents, to obtain a one-day toll of 50 dead.
This tally did not include the 32 bodies seen by the other activist, suggesting that sectarian killings of Alawites by opposition Sunni militias might be going unreported.
Like most anti-government activists, Shadi denied the revolt was turning into sectarian war. "I'm not sure you can even say it's clearly pro-Assad or anti-Assad fighting," he said.
"It's anger and revenge."
While it is impossible to know who is behind every killing, reports from both sides of the conflict make one thing clear: the Free Syrian Army is inflicting more and more casualties on Assad forces.
The state news agency SANA said 11 more "army and security forces martyrs" were buried on Monday with military honours. The report listed their names and ranks. (Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny)
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