A SYRIAN HUMAN rights group says the death toll has risen to 12 from shootings during protests and at a funeral on Sunday night.

Ammar Qurabi, head of Syria’s National Organization for Human Rights told AP that eight people died in two shootings in the central city of Homs and a nearby village.

He also said four protesters were killed in clashes between security forces and protesters in the northern cities of Latakia and Idlib.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets nationwide Sunday as part of the month long uprising against the country’s authoritarian regime.

Syrian security forces in uniforms and plainclothes have launched a deadly crackdown on demonstrations, killing at least 200 people, according to human rights groups.

Separately it has been reported that the US State Department has been secretly financing opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The Washington Post reported the allegations, citing previously undisclosed diplomatic documents provided to the newspaper by the WikiLeaks website.

One of the outfits funded by the US is Barada TV, a London-based satellite channel that broadcasts anti-government news into Syria.

Barada’s chief editor, Malik al-Abdeh, is a cofounder of the Syrian exile group Movement for Justice and Development.

The leaked documents show that the US has provided at least $6 million to Barada TV and other opposition groups inside Syria.

The Obama administration has reached out to Assad’s regime, hoping to persuade it to change its policies regarding Israel, Lebanon, Iraq and support for extremist groups.

In January, the U.S. stationed an ambassador in Damascus, the capital, for the first time in five years.

The Post said it was not clear from the WikiLeaks documents whether the U.S. was still financing Assad’s opponents, though they showed funding had been set aside through September 2010.

- AP