Beirut: Syrian activists and Lebanese journalists burned the Russian flag at a rally in downtown Beirut on Wednesday evening, in protest over the deaths earlier in the day of two foreign journalists in the besieged Syrian city of Homs.

Russia, along with China, has vetoed two Security Council resolutions backing Arab League plans aimed at ending the conflict and condemning President Bashar Assad's crackdown on opposition protests.

In Wednesday's protest, in the capital's Samir Kassir Square, Syrian activists waved opposition flags and chanted slogans against Assad, holding candles and placards calling for freedom and an end to the brutal crackdown.

In a separate rally, supporters of Assad waved the Syrian national flag and pictures of the Syrian leader.

Lebanese army troops kept the two protests apart and there were no reports of violence.

French photographer Remy Ochlik and American war correspondent, Marie Colvin, were killed when several shells hit a house used by activists and journalists in the Baba Amr neighbourhood of Homs, which - with its force of breakaway soldiers - has emerged as a major centre of resistance against Assad's regime.

Their deaths were two of 74 deaths reported on Wednesday in Syria.

Some 5,400 people have been killed in Syria since January (2012), according to the United Nations.

Syrian activists, however, put the death toll at more than 7,300.

Tags: Beirut, Journalists death in Syria, Journalists deaths, Syria protests, Syria unrest