Activists say at least 18 people have been killed in anti-government unrest in Syria on Saturday, a day after the U.N.'s top human rights body voted to condemn Damascus for human rights violations.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights say most of Saturday's deaths occurred in the northern city of Idlib, where security forces have clashed with military defectors.

On Friday, the U.N. Human Rights Council passed a resolution condemning Syria for “gross” and “systematic violations of human rights for its deadly crackdown on dissent. The council also agreed to appoint a special investigator to probe human rights abuses in Syria.

Earlier, a U.N.-backed study said several hundred children were among those who had been killed in the government crackdown. The world body says the overall death toll from eight months of unrest in Syria has topped 4,000.

On Saturday, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden praised Syria's neighbor, Turkey, and the U.N. panel for taking steps to address repression in Syria.

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“Regional issues from the brutal repression in Syria where Turkey, where we stand with Turkey and a growing chorus of nations in calling for President Assad to step aside. And I welcome the Human Rights Council's condemnation yesterday of the regime's violence.”

Biden commented in Istanbul, ahead of a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Syria has contended its actions are not a crackdown on protests, but a necessary response to attacks by “armed terrorists” on civilians and security personnel.