Al Jazeera's Nisreen El-Shamayleh reports on the latest from Ramtha, along the Jordan-Syrian border
Syrian security forces have shot dead two people and wounded nine others in the northwestern province of Idlib, activists from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"Two people were killed and another nine wounded in the Khan Sheikhun area near Idlib (city) during an incursion by security forces and the army," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told the AFP news agency on Sunday.
Syrian activists told Al Jazeera that two Syrians died of their critical wounds on Sunday in Homs and Daraa provinces, and a third was found dead in Harasta, near Damascus, after snipers opened fire on him.
Security forces pursuing a deadly crackdown against President Bashar Assad's critics stormed villages, raiding houses and making arrests, activists said on Sunday.
The targeted villages were in the eastern Deir ez-Zour province. Arrests also were reported in Idlib province. Intermittent gunfire erupted in several areas across the country.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Co-ordination Committees reported that one man had been shot overnight in the Damascus suburb of Saqba. Residents also reported gun battles between Assad supporters and army defectors in the Qadam suburb. The clashes reportedly started after four to five soldiers joined protests. On Saturday, activists said one demonstrator was killed and 10 hurt when security forces attacked the Rifai mosque in the capital's western suburb of Kafarsouseh. Activists said security forces stormed the mosque, attacking Osama al-Rifai, the 80-year-old imam, and arrested about 150 people.
Later in the day, protesters from Douma, on the outskirts of Damascus, marched towards the centre of the city to protest against the mosque attack. When the protesters arrived in the suburb of Saqba, security forces opened fire on them and one person was killed, according to activists. Arab League initiative 'rejected'
The bloodshed prompted the Arab League to agree to go to Damascus bearing "an initiative to solve the crisis" in Syria, a statement said after a special meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Egypt.
The ministers "asked the secretary-general of the Arab League to carry out an urgent mission to Damascus and transmit the Arab initiative to resolve the crisis to the Syrian leadership," the statement said on Sunday.
It did not give details of the initiative, but Al Jazeera has learned that some of the suggestions would include the holding of presidential elections, withdrawal of the army from the cities, the release of political prisoners and those rounded up in the protests, and the formation of a national unity government that includes members from the opposition.
The statement also called for an end to the bloodshed in Syria that opposition activists say has left more than 2,200 people dead and urged respect for the Syrian people's right to see political, social and economic reforms.
The ministers expressed their "concern faced with the grave developments on the Syrian scene” and called in their statement for an "end to the spilling of blood and follow the way of reason before it is too late."
However, Syria on Sunday reportedly rejected the statement, in a diplomatic protest memo presented to the Arab League, sources told Al Jazeera.
Russia also announced it was sending a senior envoy to Damascus on Monday, according to the Itar-Tass news agency.
Meanwhile, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said his country had "lost confidence" in the Syrian leadership.
"We are really very sad," he told the Anatolian news agency. "Incidents are said to be 'finished' and then another 17 people are dead. How many will it be today? Clearly we have reached a point where anything would be too little too late. We have lost our confidence."
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