Many warn that Syria now faces a civil war At least 41 civilians including seven children were shot dead on Friday by Syrian security forces in the capital Damascus and the restive central city of Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
It said in a statement on Saturday that 12 people -- among them two children aged 10 and 12 - were killed in Homs and that a 14-year-old boy was killed in Aqrab village in the Homs area where the opposition charges the regime is planning a massacre.
To the north, the Britain-based rights watchdog said five civilians were shot dead by security forces in the city of Hama, a focal point of dissent against the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad.
In Damascus province, 18 civilians including two children were shot dead in Duma, Saqba, Kafarbatna, Hamourieh and Dmeir.
The Observatory said that in the southern province of Daraa, cradle of the revolt that erupted in mid-March, a woman and a young girl were killed.
And near the Turkish frontier in the north, in Idlib province, two civilians including a 15-year-old youth were killed in Maaret Numan town, and a taxi driver was shot dead in the same area.
The United Nations estimates that at least 4,000 civilians have been killed in Syria in the past nine months.
On Friday, the opposition Syrian National Council warned of a looming bloody final assault on Homs using the pretext of what the regime called a "terrorist" attack on an oil pipeline on Thursday.
"The regime (is) paving the way to commit a massacre in order to extinguish the revolution in Homs," said the SNC, a coalition of Assad opponents.
In response, the UK called on the Syrian forces to withdraw from the city, and the US state department said it was "extremely concerned" by the reports and that President Bashar al-Assad would be responsible for further any deaths.Homs, an important central junction city of 1.6 million residents divided along confessional lines, is a tinderbox of sectarian tensions that the SNC said the regime was trying to exploit.
Many of Friday's deaths were reported from Homs. Activists said gunfire left "many" injured in the Khaldiyeh neighbourhood, where well-known actress Fadwa Soliman led a demonstration.
"The earth was shaking,'' a Homs resident told the Associated Press by telephone, saying explosions and cracks of gunfire erupted in the early morning. "Armoured personnel carriers drove through the streets and opened fire randomly with heavy machine guns.''Activists dubbed Friday a "Dignity Strike" and had hoped to stage a mass display of civil disobedience.
Outside of Homs, there were also reports of violence and arrests in Aleppo, Idlib province, and Damascus, the capital.
The violence came after Assad, embattled by nine months of protests against his rule, claimed in a rare interview with a US television network that he had not ordered a crackdown and that the United Nations' claim of 4,000 dead during the uprising was wrong.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hit back at that statement on Friday, saying "all the credible information" supported the UN count.
The reports could not be verified because Syria has banned most foreign journalists and prevented independent reporting. Accounts from activists and witnesses, along with amateur videos posted online, provide key channels of
information.
The violence comes as the government tries to choke off a nine-month uprising demanding the ouster of President Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for more than 40 years.
Despite sanctions from the United States and European Union, increasing isolation from its Arab neighbours and a demand from the UN to allow observers in, Assad has refused to buckle to the pressure.
The opposition remains somewhat split between the Syrian National Council (SNC), an Istanbul-based body, and the National Co-ordination Committee for Democratic Change, which is based inside Syria and advocates dialogue with Assad.
"The problem at this point is that the Arab League is insistent on unifying everyone in the opposition," Louay Safi, an SNC member, told Al Jazeera, adding that his group represented the bulk. "The problem is some factions ... don't represent the revolutionary forces. They are traditional political actors."
Neighbouring Turkey urged Assad to punish his security forces and accept an Arab League observer mission if he is "sincere'' in his repudiation of violence against civilians.
"If he is sincere, he will punish the security forces, he will accept the Arab League observers and help change the atmosphere,'' Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Friday. "He still has the opportunity to do this.''
Turkey meanwhile moved to suspend a 2008 free trade agreement with Syria, which will lead to the imposition of taxes of up to 30 per cent on some Syrian goods, authorities said.
The move, like most of the economic measures taken against Syria, is likely to hit the business class, which until now has been one of the main props of the government.
Syria already unilaterally suspended the free trade agreement, but Turkey's cabinet needed to approve the suspension so it can collect the taxes.
Customs and Trade Minister Hayati Yazici said Turkey is planning to encourage Turkish lorries to favour Iraqi and Jordanian routes to Middle East markets, bypassing Syria.
"We are having tensions with Syria,'' Yazici said. "Of course, our trade is important but our stance based on humanitarian values is above everything.''
AP also reported that The UN human rights chief is forcing Syrian officials to let observers in to access the rights situation, and is reiterating her concerns the conflict could erupt in civil war. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Friday also confirmed the government's estimate that nearly 1,000 security forces had been killed in the clashes inside the country.Pillay estimates that more than 4,000 people on all sides have died in the nine-month conflict.
A Syrian Foreign ministry spokesman said Friday that his country is subject to a "media war" and accused the US media of misquoting Syrian President Bashar Al- Assad by taking parts of his interview with the ABC network out of context.
Jihad Makdessi said that most of Assad's speech has been distorted by the ABC and the United States as well, indicating that the channel has the right to make montage but not to distort facts.
"They try to demonise Syria ... it's a media war," said Makdessi.
The spokesman aired parts of the Syrian President's interview with the ABC News, noting that the interview lasted about 45 minutes but only 15 minutes of it was aired.
"They tried to target Syria economically, politically, and even in the sectarian field," he said, stressing that all sanctions would be of no avail.
Makdessi said President Assad has mentioned figures about civilians who were killed and the way in which they were killed, " but nothing has been broadcasted other than the phrase 'far from reality and irrationality.'"
President Assad is "appalled and saddened" by the ongoing violence in the country, said Makdissi, noting that Assad has promised accountability.
Makdessi said President Assad has given instructions since the beginning of the protests not to shoot at any person, adding that the president has given orders only to implement the law and the constitution stipulates that it is prohibited to use guns.
He said the use of automatic rifles by anyone is considered as a violation of law, and quoted Assad as saying that there were violations in some cases and those held responsible have been punished.
He also quoted Assad as saying: "No order has been given to anyone to kill or be brutal ... we don't have any institution that gives orders to commit brutal acts."
On Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said "If he (Assad) is sincere (in denying that he had ordered any crackdown), he will immediately punish these murderers. He will accept Arab League (AL) observers and help change the situation," he told reporters in Turkish capital Ankara on Friday.
Syria's spokesman said Damascus has received the response of the AL chief Nabil Al-Arabi on the message sent earlier by Damascus on the protocol, adding that the answer is still under discussion.
Al-Arabi has reportedly sought Iraq's mediation to convince the Syrian leadership to sign the protocol.
Makdessi said Syria is ready to cooperate and stressed that the Syrian opposition is asked to believe in dialogue.
"We are appealing to the outside world and our brothers in the Arab world to help Syria through their good offices and to stop incitement, channeling weapons to Syria, sending al-Thuraia phones (satellite phones), pressuring, sanctioning, cornering Syria ... this is not helping Syria," he said.
"We want the others, all the others to support the Syrian evolution ... we don't want them to support the armed confrontation in Syria," he added.
"We will go with diplomacy to the end of the road," he stressed.