- BEIRUT: Syrian security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters after Friday prayers at several locations around the country, while the army sent reinforcements into a southern area where military defectors recently launched deadly attacks on regime troops.
On the diplomatic front, Russia began circulating a draft UN Security Council resolution it said was designed to resolve the conflict in Syria. The draft calls for an end to all violence. The opposition Syrian National Council said it would ask for international protection — but not military intervention — for the Syrian people against the violence of the regime of President Bashar Assad.
The Local Coordination Committees and the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said one person was killed in the shooting in the restive central city of Homs, and a man who was wounded in the southern province of Deraa earlier in the day died of his wounds.
Friday's protests, which took place nationwide, came a day after Syrian Army defectors killed 27 government security personnel in Deraa in apparently coordinated attacks that were among the deadliest by rebel troops so far.
The Observatory said more than 200,000 people marched in different neighborhoods of Homs on Friday to denounce the regime. The Observatory also reported shooting near a mosque in the eastern city of Deir El-Zour but it was unclear if there were casualties there.
The LCC said anti-government rallies took place after Friday prayers all across Syria — from Deraa to the suburbs of the capital, Damascus, in Homs and Hama in the country's center, and to the north in the city of Aleppo.
A Homs-based activist said security forces opened fire in the air before the protesters came out of mosques, but as soon as they came out to the streets the shooting stopped.
"It might be a goodwill gesture by the regime ahead of the Russian initiative," the activist said, referring to Russian attempts at the U.N. to end the crisis. "It looks as if the regime is showing tacit approval of the Russian initiative."
Russia has criticized opponents of Assad's rule for employing violent tactics. Western nations said the Russian draft did not go far enough, because it contained no sanctions against the regime.
The umbrella group of Assad opponents began a three-day session in Tunis with council leader Burhan Ghalioun saying their goal is to "invest our struggle with more force and energy." Tunisian delegate Abdallah Turkmani said the council will seek international protection for Syrians in the line of fire.
