Syrian forces Omar al-Idlibi, spokesman for the LCC activist network, has told Al Jazeera an estimated 2,500 protestors are attempting to march from the north-east suburbs of Damascus to occupy the large, strategically important Abasseeyen Square.
“They are trying to reach Abasseeyen Square.  For the past three days, there has been a plan for protestors to occupy squares in Damascus. But after they attacked Rifai Mosque this morning and beat worshippers there is so much anger in the suburbs,” he said. Protestors from Duma had marched through Miraba to Hammouriyeh where they came under fire from security forces, the LCC reported. The firing was aimed at dispersing the crowd and there were no reports yet of casualities, said Idlibi. Security forces were also reprtedly setting up road blocks to prevent marchers continuing from Hammouriyeh into the capital itself. In the early weeks of the urprising, protestors from north-east of the capital attempted to reach Abasseyeen Square but were beaten back by security forces, who then set up a base inside the Abasseyeen football stadium, where all matches have been cancelled. “If security forces were not firing we expect we could bring 10,000 to central Damascus,” said Idlibi.
In other news, the Syrian government should recognise the "legitimate demands" of its people, Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has said, while warning of toppling Assad's government. "The government should answer to the demands of its people, be it Syria, Yemen or other countries," the ISNA news agency quoted him as saying. "The people of these nations have legitimate demands and the governments should reply to these demands as soon as possible".  Salehi once again accused "foreigners" of interfering in the domestic affairs of the regional nations. "Syria is an important link in the resistance chain [against Israel] and some want to cut off this link in the chain. "A vacuum in the Syrian regime would have an unpredictable impact for the region and its neighbours," he said, referring to calls by the US and EU for Assad to step down.
In related news, signs emerged recently that the recently expanded US sanctions on Syria are beginning to bite. On Thursday, Syrians received text messages that their Visa cards would no longer work in Syria, a direct result of the expanded sanctions signed off this month by President Obama that proscribed the state-owned Commercial Bank of Syria and its Lebanon-based subsidiary as well as making it illegal for any US company or citizen to do business in Syria.
"Visa is required by law to comply with the U.S. Department of the Treasury financial sanctions against Syria," the company said. "As a result, Visa has suspended its payment card activity in Syria under the recently expanded sanctions."
In a statement faxed to the AP, the state-run Commercial Bank of Syria said the victims of the sanctions would be Syrian citizens and foreign tourists who will be "obliged to deal in cash with all its undesirable problems." Also Thursday, Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company, said it had cancelled a deal to load naphtha petroleum at the Syrian port of Banias this week. "It is due to U.S. sanctions," said Michael Christian Storgaard, a Maersk spokesman. The naphtha was being sold by French oil major Total, which has sizeable investments in the Syrian oil sector, to Spanish oil company Repsol.
The UN investigative team has wrapped up its visit to Syria, concluding that “there is an urgent need to protect civilians” from excessive force, but said it had been unable to fully assess the situation due to regime restrictions.
“The constant presence of government officials limited the mission's ability to fully and independently assess the situation,” said UN spokesman Farhan Haq. “The mission concluded that although there's no countrywide humanitarian crisis, there is an urgent need to protect civilians from the excessive use of force.” Syria had refused for months to allow a UN mission into the country to investigate the violence. The government allowed the team in last week, promising full and unfettered access. The problematic restrictions placed on the UN delegation by the state was graphically illustrated in Homs on August 22 when videos, here and here  showed security forces opening fire on crowds which had gathered to meet the UN team just moments after their convoy pulled out of the city. Activists said at least three people had been killed in the attack and six injured, issuing a statement condemning the UN for not having met with the local population. So far, the Local Co-ordination Committees said that 10 people were killed in protests on Friday. 5 people were killed in Deirezzour, 2 people in Douma, Damascus suburb, 1 person in Nawa, Deraa province, 1 person in Quseir, Homs and 1 person in Kafar Nabel, Idlib. However, the LCC reported two more deaths in Al-Adawiyeh, Homs, where one person died under torture a week after he was arrested, and in Maarat an-Numan, Idlib, one person died of injuries sustained during a protest earlier this week.
On Saturday, There had been a call for protesters to march on Abassen Square in the centre of the city, a witness at the Damascus suburb of Kafr Sousa protests said, and online reports suggested that security forces were blocking roads to prevent crowds from gathering. However, a spokesman for the Local Co-ordination Committees told Al Jazeera that reports of big masses in Abaseen Square are false and that there's a "quiet atmosphere" in the capital. The spokesman said only 50-60 people gathered in the square and "nothing happened". But a Syrian activist tells Al Jazeera that protesters failed to reach the Umayyad and Abaseen squares, where activists had urged them to converge, because of the security check points.
Early Saturday, security forces surrounding the Rifaie Mosque in the Damascus suburb of Kafr Sousa fired tear gas on thousands of worshipers as they ended their prayers and tried to leave the building, the Local Coordination Committees of Syria (LCC) reported. Many of the worshipers returned inside the mosque, where they chanted slogans calling for the fall of the regime, said the LCC, which organizes and documents anti-government protests. Protests erupted after early morning prayers on Saturday in Kafarsouseh, a western suburb of the capital.
A witness told Al Jazeera that security forces and regime thugs arrived at the scene, using sound bombs and tear gas in an attempt to stop the protest. Protesters threw some rocks and the tear gas canisters back at the security forces, the witness said, and security forces responded with gun fire, injuring eight people. The witness said protesters were then pushed back into the mosque, which was surrounded by shabiha thugs and security forces. Later, the organization reported that security forces were making random arrests outside the mosque. Elsewhere in Syria, in Kafar nabal in Idlib province, one person was shot dead earlier today, according to the LCC spokesman.
SANA reporters on Saturday denied existence of any gatherings or demonstrations at al-Abbasyyn, Umayyad and Kefr Swseh Squares contrary to what some provocative satellite channels have aired this morning. The reporters toured all the areas which these provocative channels talked about, stressing that tranquility and normal life prevail as people continue their normal lives.
In the restive city of Daraa, where the arrests in March of 15 teenagers for scrawling anti-government graffiti on walls ignited the country's expressions of discontent, security forces fired randomly in an attempt to disperse two groups of demonstrators who were chanting, "God is great!" Tanks were surrounding more than 2,000 protesters and two armored vehicles were outside Daraa's Omari Mosque, preventing worshipers from leaving the mosque to protest.
The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported that 11 army and security forces were killed by "terrorist groups" in Homs and Deir Ezzor. Another 16 soldiers were wounded, SANA said. Assad has exploited fears of chaos in Syria, with the regime portraying him as the only man who can guarantee peace in a country with a mix of religious groups. The opposition, however, says the protest movement is free of sectarian overtones and is simply demanding freedom and democracy. On Friday, Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah voiced his full support for the Syrian government and President Assad again, describing the uprising as part of a plot by the West, notably the US, to divide Syria in an attempt to create a new Middle East.
“There are some who want to push Syria towards partition in order to serve the new Middle East project which we destroyed in Lebanon and in Gaza [in December 2008] and in the 2006 July war,” he said, referring to the war fought between Hezbollah and Israel which the Bush administration described as “the birth pangs of a new Middle East.”
“We must stand with Syria so that it will not make concessions and to be able to carry out reforms in peace and confidence. No one can accept reforms under pressure. We know that the Syrian leadership is serious about reforms,” Nasrallah said, in a televised speech addressing a mass rally in the southern village of Maroun al-Ras near the border with Israel.
In Albu Kamal, on the border with Iraq, protesters denounced the speech by carrying posters of Nasrallah with Assad, both crossed out. Across Syria, protestors have often vented their dismay at what they say is Hezbollah’s double standards of supporting Arab uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Bahrain but of refusing to condemn the bloody crackdown on Syrian protesters.
In other news, The United States and Israel are monitoring Syria’s suspected arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, fearing that terror groups could take advantage of the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad to obtain chemical agents and long-range missiles, The Wall Street Journal reported late Friday. Citing unnamed officials from both countries, the newspaper said US intelligence services believe Syria’s nonconventional weapons programs include significant stockpiles of mustard gas, VX and Sarin gas and the missile and artillery systems to deliver them. United Nations investigators also recently concluded that Damascus had been secretly constructing a nuclear reactor with North Korean help before Israeli jets destroyed the site in late 2007, the report said. US and UN nonproliferation officials continue to worry that Pyongyang may have provided Syria with additional nuclear-related equipment, The Journal noted.
“We are very concerned about the status of Syria’s WMD, including chemical weapons,” the paper quoted Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, as saying. “Together with the US administration, we are watching this situation very carefully.” US and Israeli officials won’t disclose exactly how they are keeping watch on the Syrian weaponry, the report said.