Most of the violence broke out in the southern province of Daraa where the five-month-old uprising against Assad erupted in March, triggering a harsh response in which UN investigators say Syrian forces may have committed crimes against humanity.
“Bye-bye Bashar; See you in The Hague,” chanted protesters in the central city of Homs. “The people want the execution of the president,” shouted a crowd in northern Idlib province, reflecting deepening antipathy to the 45-year-old Assad.
Security forces shot dead five people, including two children, in the town of Ghabaghab south of Damascus, said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Residents and activists in the Daraa towns of Inkhil and Hirak said another eight protesters were killed by security forces and one other died in the Bab Amro district of Homs.
The main midday Muslim prayers held on Friday have been a launchpad for huge rallies across Syria and have seen some of the heaviest bloodshed, with 20 people killed last week in defiant protests where people chanted: “We kneel only to God.”
Assad, from the minority Alawite sect in the majority Sunni Muslim nation, told UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon this week that military and police operations had stopped, but activists say his forces are still shooting at protesters.
“Maybe Bashar Al-Assad does not regard police as security forces,” said a witness in Hama, where security forces fired machineguns later on Thursday to prevent a night-time protest.
Syrian state television said the deaths in Ghabaghab were caused by gunmen who attacked a police post, killing a policeman and a civilian and wounding two others. It said gunmen also killed one person in Harasta, near Damascus.
Syria has expelled most independent media since the unrest began, making it difficult to verify reports of violence in which the United Nations says 2,000 civilians have been killed. Authorities blame terrorists and extremists for the bloodshed and say 500 soldiers and police have been killed.
Internet footage of Friday’s protests suggested that although widespread they were smaller than at their peak in July, before Assad sent tanks and troops into several cities.
A doctor in Zabadani, 30 km (20 miles) northeast of Damascus, said army vehicles were in the town and snipers were on the roof to prevent crowds marching.
Protesters from Syria’s Sunni majority resent the power and wealth amassed by some Alawites, who adhere to an offshoot of Shiite Islam, and want Assad to quit, the dismantling of the security apparatus and the introduction of sweeping reforms.
The violent repression prompted coordinated calls from the United States and European Union on Thursday for Assad to step down and Washington imposed sweeping new sanctions on Syria, which borders Israel, Lebanon and Iraq and is an ally of Iran.
The shape of a post-Assad Syria is unclear, although the disparate opposition, persecuted for decades, has gained a fresh sense of purpose as popular disaffection has spread.
President Barack Obama froze Syrian government assets in the United States, banned US citizens from operating or investing in Syria and prohibited US imports of Syrian oil products.
“The future of Syria must be determined by its people, but President Bashar Al-Assad is standing in their way,” Obama said. “His calls for dialogue and reform have rung hollow while he is imprisoning, torturing and slaughtering his own people.”
Adding to international pressure, UN investigators said Assad’s forces had committed violations that may amount to crimes against humanity. The United Nations plans to send a team to Syria on Saturday to assess the humanitarian situation.
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton called on Assad to step aside and said the EU was preparing to broaden its own sanctions against Syria. Diplomats said the measures might include a ban on oil imports. Syria exports over a third of its 385,000 barrels per day crude output to Europe.
The United States, Britain and European allies say they will draft a UN Security Council sanctions resolution on Syria.
But Russia, which has resisted Western calls for UN sanctions, said on Friday it also opposed calls for Assad to step down and believed he needs time to implement reforms.
“We do not support such calls and believe that it is necessary now to give President Assad’s regime time to realize all the reform processes that have been announced,” Interfax news agency quoted a foreign ministry source as saying.
Despite the dramatic sharpening of Western rhetoric, there is no threat of Western military action like that against Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi, meaning Assad’s conflict with his opponents seems likely to grind on in the streets.
It may also take time for the diplomatic broadside, backed by the new sanctions, to have an impact on the president who took power when his father, Hafez Al-Assad, died 11 years ago after three decades in office.
Assad has so far brushed off international pressure and survived years of US and European isolation following the 2005 assassination of Lebanese statesman Rafik Al-Hariri, a killing many Western nations held Damascus responsible for.
But Syria’s economy, already hit by a collapse in tourism revenue, could be further damaged by Obama’s announcement. US sanctions will make it very difficult for banks to finance transactions involving Syrian oil exports.
It will make it also challenging for companies with a large US presence, such as Shell
Assad says the protests are a foreign conspiracy to divide Syria and said last week his army would “not relent in pursuing terrorist groups.”
UN investigators said on Thursday Syrian forces had fired on peaceful protesters, often at short range. Their wounds were “consistent with an apparent shoot-to-kill policy.”
