Eight people were killed and 14 others were kidnapped Sunday by armed groups in Syria's central province of Homs, al-Watan newspaper said Monday.

Six army personnel, a woman and a doctor, were killed by armed terrorist groups in the central province of Homs, according to the report.

Fourteen army personnel, including two colonels and a lieutenant, were kidnapped in an ambush on the al-Qusair-Ein Tannour highway and were taken to an unknown destination toward the Lebanese border, al-Watan added.

Colonel Khairat Kahleh was shot but managed to escape after the assailants, who believed he was killed, left him behind, the report said, quoting "reliable" sources at Homs, Syria's third- largest city that has spearheaded rallies against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since protests erupted on March 15.

Meanwhile, the Doha-based al-Jazeera TV cited activists as saying that at least seven people were killed Sunday in Homs, central Hama, and coastal Latakia provinces.

The activists' accounts couldn't be verified as journalists are banned from heading to the restive areas.

Syria has been wracked by six-month-old unrest it blames on foreign conspiracy and foreign thugs. A recently UN tally put the number of the civilians killed during the past six months at 2,600.

Syria, however, disputed the death toll and said 1,400 people have been killed, including security forces and the protesters, according to Buthaina Shabaan, an adviser to al-Assad.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet