“Freedom, freedom, freedom. One, one, one. The Syrian people are one,” mourners chanted as they carried eight bodies draped in Syrian flags through the streets of Douma, a suburb of the capital Damascus.

On Friday, security forces opened fire on protesters in Douma, which has become a gathering point for people descending on Damascus from outlying provinces. Syria has blamed the violence in Douma and other cities on “armed groups.”

The protests, inspired by Arab uprisings which have toppled leaders in Egypt and Tunisia, pose the biggest threat to Assad’s 11-year rule, which has been governed by emergency law and a single political party since 1963.

Activists and witnesses say more than 60 people have been killed in two weeks of protests and opposition activist Maamoun Al-Homsi said Wednesday he had the names of 105 people killed. Statements by authorities suggest a toll nearer 30. On Sunday, Assad named Adel Safar, agriculture minister in the government which resigned last week, to form a new Cabinet. Under his watch at the Agriculture Ministry, a water crisis that experts largely attribute to corruption and mismanagement, intensified and led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. Syria became a net grain importer.

Safar’s government will replace the outgoing Cabinet of Naji Al-Otari, whose resignation Assad accepted on Tuesday. Two days later the president made a series of limited reform pledges, including setting up committees to replace emergency law with anti-terrorism legislation, and address Kurdish grievances.

Ministers have little influence in Syria, where power is held by Assad, his family and the security apparatus. Safar will have no say in how authorities react to protests.

In Douma, a witness said some 50 wounded arrived in secret police cars around midnight in Municipality Square. Secret police agents gave the names of 25 people in hospital with serious injuries, the witness said.

“Douma is boiling. Syria as a nation may no longer keep sitting idly and let a historic chance for freedom pass by,” one of the activists said of the area some 15 km north of the city, linking the capital to the northern countryside.

In Daraa, where protests started before they spread to Damascus, the coast and areas in between, security forces dispersed a sit-in on Saturday at Serail Square and arrested at least 20 people, witnesses said.

“Our demands are same, same: freedom, freedom,” the protesters, who numbered 200 to 300, chanted.

The turmoil could have wider repercussions since Syria, bordered by Lebanon, Israel, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq, is in the thick of the Middle East conflict.