As international pressure mounts, President Asad's regime shows no signs of stopping the violence Damascus – Agencies Syrian troops killed at least 25 people on “Allah Akbar” Friday when as international powers cast their doubts on the regime's commitment to the Arab League peace deal. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said of the 25 people killed across Syria, nine were in Homs.
Homs, resident to one million people, has been at the frontline of protests since mid-March and has borne the burnt of embattled president Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on the protests. At least 10 people were injured in Hama, but ambulances were prevented from entering the area to reach the wounded. There were reports that planes still hovered over the district
Further north in Hama, four civilians were shot, while seven people were killed in the town of Kanaker, outside the capital, and a protester was shot dead by security forces in Damascus.
Two more people were killed, one of them an army deserter, when troops opened fire on a group of people trying to slip across the border into Jordan, the UK-based Observatory said.
Four policemen were also wounded, two critically, in clashes with an "armed terrorist group" in Kanaker, the state-run SANA news agency reported, adding that one of the gunmen was killed in the fighting.
The agency also denied reports that dozens of people were arrested in Banias, quoting the governor of Tartus where the Mediterranean coastal city is located.
Earlier the Observatory said that "four children closely related to Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman" were among those seized in Banias.
Video footage posted on YouTube showed dozens of demonstrators, some masked, marching through the historic Midan neighbourhood of Damascus, chanting anti-Assad slogans.
In the port city of Latakia, an activist said he counted 13 security trucks surrounding the main Arsalan mosque. He said at least three protesters were wounded by security forces firing in front of the Bazar mosque in the centre of the city.
"They were hit and taken by the security forces. In front of every mosque in Latakia there are several hundred security personnel carrying either batons, handguns, or automatic rifles," the activist said.
Protesters in Harasta just outside Damascus, described Assad as a "liar" who has no intention of implementing the Arab roadmap.
Demonstrators also chanted: "Allah will overcome tyrants and despots" -- echoing the slogan of Friday's protests which activists called to "validate" whether the government was implementing terms of the Arab peace deal.
The Syrian government showed no plan of relenting in spite of agreeing to the Arab League’s proposal to stop the violence wracking the country, as international pressure mounts on Assad’s regime.
The United States and France slammed Syria for pressing on with its crackdown on dissent and failing to heed to the hard-won agreement that calls for tanks to be withdrawn from protest hubs in a bid to end nearly eight months of bloodshed.
Members of the UN Human Rights Council meanwhile said they seek to "shine a spotlight" on violations in Syria as a UN commission of inquiry prepared to file later this month a report on the violence-struck country.
There has been enormous scepticism inside and outside Syria about the regime's sincerity regarding proposals to call off its troops and enter meaningful negotiations with the opposition as it promised under the deal unveiled on Wednesday.
"The continuing repression can only strengthen the international community's doubts about the Syrian regime's sincerity to implement the Arab League peace plan," French foreign ministry deputy spokesman Romain Nadal said in Paris.
The Syrian interior ministry also announced an amnesty plan Friday that Syrians who surrendered their weapons by November 12 would be granted amnesty in a concession to mark the Eid al-Adha feast.
However, US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland expressed scepticism for the amnesty deal saying: "I wouldn't advise anybody to turn themselves in to regime authorities at the moment."
“This would be about the fourth amnesty that they’ve offered since I took this job about five months ago,” she told reporters.
State media reported that anyone heeding the ministry's call to surrender weapons at the nearest police station "will walk free.. and receive an amnesty."
The interior ministry set a deadline from Saturday to November 12 but warned the offer was not valid for anyone having committed "murder."
Syrian authorities have used forced to crush almost daily anti-regime protests since mid-March, and more than 3,000 people have been killed according to UN estimates.
Pro-democracy protesters insist their campaign is peaceful while the government says it has been battling "armed terrorist groups."
The Arab League meanwhile said foreign correspondents should apply to Syrian authorities to enter the country, since unfettered media access was part of the deal Damascus approved.