DAMASCUS/BEIRUT/TEHRAN: An Arab League team is to take the 10-month-old crisis in Syria to the U.N. Security Council, as activists said almost 50 people were killed in unrest Thursday, including 10 children.

The U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay has said the United Nations could not keep track of the death toll in Syria’s crackdown on dissent that has already claimed more than 5,400 lives.

At the Cairo-based Arab League, the organization’s chief Nabil Elaraby said he and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani were to head to New York Saturday to seek support for an Arab plan on Syria.

They are to “hold a meeting with the U.N. Security Council Monday to follow up on the Arab League decision over Syria,” and for embattled President Bashar Assad to hand power to his deputy, Elaraby said.

Arab League ministers urged Assad Sunday to delegate powers to his vice president and clear the way for a national unity government within two months, a plan which Damascus has ruled out as interference in its internal affairs.

But a Syrian opposition figure Thursday called on the Arab League to hold talks with Russia before turning to the United Nations.

Haitham Mannaa of the Syrian National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change, whose group is strongly opposed to international intervention in Syria, warned that Russia would stand even more staunchly by the side of the embattled regime should it feel sidelined. “We hope to see Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby head to Moscow before New York,” Mannaa said.

“Russia could support the Arab League proposal if it feels that it is directly involved, but if sidelined, it would stand against it,” he told AFP by phone. “Russia wants a bigger role.”

Russia and China have both blocked attempts to have the Security Council formally condemn Assad’s crackdown on dissent and impose stiff sanctions if he refuses to enter direct talks.

Russia said Wednesday it would consider “constructive proposals” to end the bloodshed, but opposed the use of force or sanctions against its Syrian ally.

According to diplomats at the United Nations, European and Arab governments are drafting a new text they hope to put to a vote in the Security Council early next week.

Meanwhile, there was no letup in violence on the ground Thursday.

“The toll for the day has risen to 34 civilians killed by the security forces in several regions of Syria, mostly in Homs,” said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Separately, seven deserters and eight regular soldiers died in clashes, according to the rights group, among them a colonel killed in Homs, a protest hub in central Syria.

The Observatory said the army launched an offensive in the Karm al-Zeitoun district of Homs Thursday evening, killing 26 civilians, including nine children, and wounding dozens.

And in the rebel city of Hama, also in central Syria, where the army launched a major assault Tuesday, four civilians were killed, including a 58-year-old woman shot dead by snipers, it said.Elsewhere, one civilian reportedly died in the restive northwestern province of Idlib, and two others were killed in the suburbs of Damascus.

In the southern province of Deraa, cradle of the uprising, a teenager was killed when security forces fired indiscriminately on a student demonstration in the town of Nawa, the Observatory said.

Just north of Damascus, security forces attacked the town of Douma, another hotbed of anti-regime protests that activists say was in the hands of rebel troops last week before a withdrawal. “Violent clashes pitted security forces against groups of deserters at the Misraba bridge near the town of Douma, which was rocked by strong explosions,” the Observatory said.

It said more than 200 arrests had been made in the town during the assault, although there was no independent confirmation of the reports as foreign media are restricted in their coverage of Syria’s unrest which erupted in mid-March.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry also called for Damascus to secure the release 11 Iranian pilgrims they reported were kidnapped Thursday.

“According to our information, 11 Iranian pilgrims travelling by road to Damascus were kidnapped by an unknown group,” said ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast, quoted by the state news agency IRNA. “We call on the Syrian government to use all means ... to release the Iranian nationals,” he said.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon meanwhile condemned the killing of a Syrian Red Crescent chief a day earlier and demanded the Damascus government investigate the crime.

Ban is “deeply concerned” at the killing of Abdelrazak Jbeiro, the Syrian Red Crescent secretary-general, who was ambushed Wednesday while driving in the restive northwest province of Idlib, said U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky.

“The secretary-general condemns the attack that killed [Jbeiro], which targeted a vehicle clearly marked with the Red Crescent emblem.

“He calls on the Syrian government to investigate this crime and bring the perpetrators to justice,” said Nesirky.

Syria’s official SANA news agency said Jbeiro had been killed by “an armed terrorist group” which opened fire with a machine gun.

The authorities organized loyalist rallies Thursday in a string of major cities as they reacted angrily to mounting criticism from Arab governments that have taken the lead role in diplomatic efforts to end the bloodshed.

In the capital, thousands took to the streets in support of the government, chanting slogans hailing its longtime ally Moscow and denouncing the Arab League.