DAMASCUS — Syrian security forces killed three people, including a teenager, in two flashpoint provinces on Thursday, amid reports that the army had laid mines along the border with Lebanon.

“A 15-year-old minor was killed and three people were wounded by security forces during raids” in Dael, a protest hub near the southern city of Daraa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

A view of shop that residents say were damaged during military crackdown on protesters against President Bashar al-Assad in Homs October 27, 2011. REUTERS/Handout

On Wednesday, more than 5,000 people in Dael called for the fall of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, the Observatory said, adding that 23 people were arrested there.

Further north, two civilians were killed in the central region of Homs, one shot by sniper fire, a statement from the Britain-based watchdog said.

The Local Coordination Committees, an activist network spurring protests on the ground, said security forces entered several towns to the east of Damascus looking for people “on the basis of lists.”

State television, meanwhile, broadcast images of a huge pro-Assad rally in the coastal city of Latakia, saying that showed people’s support for (Assad’s) reform program and their rejection of foreign interference.

In a region bordering northern Lebanon, Syrian troops were seen planting mines in the early morning in an apparent bid to stop weapons smuggling along the porous border, a local Lebanese official said.

He said the troops began planting the mines at dawn in an area facing two Lebanese villages — Knaysseh and Al-Hnayder.

“A number of Syrian soldiers were also seen deploying on their side of the border, near the Syrian villages of Heet and Buwayt,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The area is separated only by mounds of earth and for long has been used to smuggle goods between the two countries.

On the diplomatic front, Foreign Minister Walid Muallem held talks with China’s special envoy for the Middle East, who reaffirmed his country’s opposition to foreign interference in Syria, Syria’s official news agency said.

Muallem and Wu Sike met in Damascus and spoke of “the relations of solid friendship” between their countries, the agency said.

The Syrian minister explained “the current situation, measures taken by Syrian leaders to respond to the legitimate demands of its citizens and efforts made to implement reforms.”

Wu reaffirmed the “pursuit of cooperation between the two countries within international bodies” as well as China’s “opposition to attempts to interfere in Syrian affairs.”

On October 4, permanent UN Security Council members Russia and China vetoed a Western-proposed resolution threatening the Syrian leadership with “targeted measures” unless it halted the bloody repression.

More recently, China asked Syria to speed up promised reforms.

Assad on Wednesday received a a delegation of Arab League ministers led by Qatar, which announced that a new meeting would take place on Sunday in a bid to find a political solution to the crisis.

The Arab League’s visit, which sought to mediate between the regime and the opposition, coincided with a new wave of violence, activists said.

The regime’s brutal crackdown on protest has killed at least 3,000 people since mid-March, according to UN figures.

Pro-democracy activists, meanwhile, called for rallies on Friday to impose “a no fly zone” over Syria in order to protect civilians from military action and to encourage soldiers to defect.

“We call on the international community to impose a no fly zone so that the Syrian Free Army can function with greater freedom,” said the Syrian Revolution 2011 on its Facebook page.

An army officer who has taken refuge in Turkey, Colonel Riad al-Asaad, claimed in July to have established an opposition armed force called the “Syrian Free Army, ” but its strength and numbers are unknown.

The call for a no-fly zone came as the UN Security Council unanimously voted to end the mandate for international military action in Libya which was aimed at protecting civilians.

Russia and China have sharply criticized the mission saying it went beyond its mandate and often cite that experience as an explanation for their stances on Syria.