Syrian security forces have killed at least two people in the central province of Homs. The deaths Saturday come a day after Syrian forces killed at least 34 people across the country.

President Bashar al-Assad pushed ahead with his brutal crackdown despite assurances to the U.N. chief this week that military operations have ended.

The military offensive has also focused on the coastal city of Latakia, the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, and the central flashpoint city of Hama.

The official news agency SANA said Mr. Assad will appear on national television Sunday to discuss the crisis, just days after the United States, the European Union and several other Western powers, said for the first time that the Syrian leader had to go.

In a separate development, the U.N. announced plans to send a team to Syria to assess the country's humanitarian situation. The U.N.'s human rights office said Thursday that Mr. Assad's forces had carried out widespread and systematic attacks on civilians that “may amount to crimes against humanity.”

U.N. Human rights chief Navi Pillay told the Security Council it should refer the situation in Syria to the Hague-based International Criminal Court.

But Syria's U.N. ambassador, Bashar Ja'afari, accused Washington and some other Security Council members of waging what he called a “diplomatic and humanitarian war” against his country.