The head of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent in the northern town of Idlib was shot dead Wednesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.
"We just learned a few minutes ago of the death of Mr. Abdulrazak Jbero, head of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent branch in Idlib.
Jbero, a Syrian national, served as first president of the country's Red Crescent society, an ICRC spokesman said.
"Jbero was on his way by car from Damascus to Idlib. He was shot. Circumstances are still unclear," Beatrice Megevand-Roggo, head of ICRC operations for the Near and Middle East, told Reuters.
"Regardless of the circumstances, the ICRC condemns this very severely," she said. "The lack of respect for medical services is still a great issue in Syria."
An ICRC statement said he was riding in a "vehicle clearly marked with a Red Crescent emblem" and expressed shock at the killing.
Syria's state-run media blamed "terrorists" for the attack.
Young child among latest dead
Meanwhile in parts of northern and central Syria, government forces clashed with army defectors Wednesday.
They stormed a number of rebellious districts, firing mortars and deploying snipers in violence that killed at least seven people, activists said.
In the town of Qusair near the central city of Homs, a woman and her 5-year-old child were killed when a shell struck their home during clashes between government troops and gunmen believed to be army defectors, activists said.
Three other people were killed during raids in a Damascus suburbs.
A Syrian military assault near Hama began Tuesday night, according to the Local Coordination Committees, an umbrella group of activists and opposition members.
Shells slammed into several districts around Hama's Bab Qebli area, the LCC said.
"It was impossible to rescue the wounded due to the ongoing arbitrary shelling," the group said in a statement.
Two people were killed by sniper fire, according to the LCC and another opposition group, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Soldiers siding with a group of anti-regime army defectors known as the Free Syrian Army are known to be active in Hama, and some in the city said they were the target of the current government assault.
Residents near Hama reported hearing loud explosions throughout the night and on Wednesday and said phone lines to the targeted areas were down.
"They are trying to storm the Bab Qebli, Hamidiyeh and Malaab districts because defectors are there," said Ahmad al-Jimejmi, an activist who spoke by telephone from a town several miles away.
Body left at mother's house
A Jordanian man of Palestinian origin accused pro-regime forces of kidnapping and killing his 27-year-old son in Hama.
Hafez Abu Osbeh said his son, Ahmed, 27, was kidnapped last Friday, and his body was left outside his mother's residence three days later with gunshot wounds to his head.
He said a description of the kidnappers' vehicle pointed to government loyalists.
Pressure on Syria to end 10 months of bloodshed has so far produced few results.
Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia have pulled out of the Arab League's observers mission, asking the U.N. Security Council to intervene. Decisive action from the U.N. appeared unlikely, however, as Russia, a strong Syrian ally, has opposed moves like sanctions.
While Syria has approved extension of the observers' presence for another month, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem signaled that the crackdown on protests will continue, insisting that Syria will solve its own problems.
Al-Moallem's televised news conference underlined signs that the Arab strategy to solve the crisis is collapsing.
After announcing their pullout from the observers mission, Gulf Arab countries urged the U.N. Security Council to take all "necessary measures" to force the country to implement a League peace plan announced Sunday to create a national unity government in two months.
Damascus has rejected the plan as a violation of national sovereignty.
