A mass protest calling for sweeping changes in Syria's authoritarian regime turned bloody Friday, with the government and protesters both claiming to have sustained heavy casualties as the country's three-week uprising entered a dangerous new phase.
Human rights activists and witnesses said Syrian security forces opened fire on tens of thousands of protesters in the volatile southern city of Daraa, killing 25 people and wounding hundreds. But state-run TV said 19 policemen and members of the security forces were killed when gunmen opened fire on them.
It was the first significant claim of casualties by the Syrian government, which has contended that armed gangs rather than true reform-seekers are behind the unrest — and it could signal plans for a stepped-up retaliation.
Protest organizers have called on Syrians to take to the streets every Friday for the past three weeks, demanding change in one of the most rigid nations in the Middle East. Protests were held in several cities across the country Friday as the movement showed no sign of letting up, despite the violent crackdowns.
Syria's National Organization for Human Rights said at least 32 people were killed nationwide on Friday. That lifts the death toll from three weeks of protests to more than 170 people.
The government acknowledged violence in Daraa on Friday, but said only two people died and blamed armed thugs.
One witness who helped ferry the dead and wounded to the city's hospital said he was among thousands of people at the protest and he witnessed security forces shooting live ammunition.
"My clothes are soaked with blood," he said by telephone from Daraa. Like most activists and witnesses who spoke to The Associated Press, he requested anonymity for fear of reprisals.
"I saw pools of blood and three bodies in the street being picked up by relatives in the Mahatta area," said another witness, who spoke to Reuters by telephone.
A nurse at the hospital said they had run out of beds; many people were being treated on the floor or in nearby mosques.
Protest organizers have called on Syrians to take to the streets every Friday for the past three weeks, demanding change in one of the most authoritarian nations in the Middle East.
The protests have rattled the regime of President Bashar Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for nearly 40 years.
'Peaceful, peaceful'
The witness accounts coming out of Syria could not be independently confirmed because the regime has restricted media access to the country. Human rights groups say around 115 people have been killed in the security crackdown.
Witnesses in several other cities across Syria also reported protests Friday. An eyewitness in the coastal city of Latakia said hundreds of people took part in a largely peaceful protest Friday calling for political freedoms.
"Peaceful, peaceful!" they shouted, marching past soldiers who were deployed in force in and around the religiously mixed city where clashes two weeks ago killed 12 people. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Activists said protests also erupted in the central cities of Homs and Hama, the coastal city of Banyas, the northern city of Aleppo and outside the capital, Damascus.
A video posted by activists on Facebook showed a crowd of people in the Damascus suburb of Harasta shouting "We want Freedom!" and "The Syrian people will not be humiliated." The footage could not be independently confirmed.
'Armed men'
The state-run news agency said a police officer and an ambulance driver were killed Friday in Daraa. The report blamed "armed men" for the violence. The government has blamed much of the unrest in recent weeks on armed thugs.
The Interior Ministry called on residents of Daraa not to provide shelter for the armed groups that opened fire on civilians and police and to provide authorities with any information they have about them.
Syria had appeared immune to the unrest sweeping the Arab world until three weeks ago, when security forces arrested a group of high school students who scrawled anti-government graffiti on a wall, sparking protests.
Thousands of ethnic Kurds also demonstrated for reform in the country's east Friday despite an offer by the president this week to ease rules which bar many Kurds from citizenship, activists said.
In the northeastern city of Qamishli, Kurdish youths chanted: "No Kurd, no Arab, Syrian people are one. We salute the martyrs of Daraa."
"The citizenship gesture only helped fuel the street. The Kurdish cause is one for democracy, freedom and cultural identity," Hassan Kamel, a high-level member of the Kurdish Democratic Party, told Reuters.
Yemen president defiantIn Yemen, hundreds of thousands of people converged in the capital Sanaa Friday for rival demonstrations, with some demanding the ouster of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and others showing their support for him.
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Two protesters were shot dead and 25 wounded by gunfire during protests in the southern Yemen city of Taiz on Friday, hospital sources said. Some 200 were hurt by tear gas inhalation.
Saleh said Friday he rejected "belligerent intervention," apparently dismissing any aspect of a Gulf Arab mediation offer that aimed to end his 32-year rule.
More than 120 people have been killed since Yemen's protests calling for the removal of Saleh began on Feb. 11.
Addressing tens of thousands of supporters, Saleh rejected a mediation offer from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council that calls on him to hand over power to his deputy in return for immunity from prosecution for him and his family.
He lashed out at Qatar for propagating the proposal and for the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera network's coverage of the unrest in his country.
"We derive our authority and legitimacy from you and not from Qatar's or other officials or from what Al-Jazeera says," Saleh said.
U.S.: Bahrain guilty of abuses Bahrain's crown prince, Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, seen as a moderate reformer in the royal family, said late Thursday that he was committed to reform but also issued a warning.
"In this significant moment in the development of our country, I will continue ... to be firm on the principle that there can be no leniency with anyone who seeks to split our society into two halves," he said.
In March, Bahrain's Sunni rulers announced martial law, deployed security forces and called in troops from neighboring Sunni-led Gulf Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, to break up pro-democracy protests led mostly by Shiites.
The move stunned the majority Shiite population and angered non-Arab Shiite power Iran, just across Gulf waters.
The United States said Friday that Bahrain was guilty of human rights abuses including arbitary detentions, censorship and discrimation against majority Shiites before its violent crackdown on street protests.
"Discrimination on the basis of gender, religion, nationality, and sect, especially against the Shia (Shiite) majority population, persisted," the U.S. State Department said in its Human Rights Report for 2010.
Shiite complaints
"Authorities arbitrarily arrested activists, journalists, and other citizens and detained some individuals incommunicado... The government restricted civil liberties, including freedoms of speech, press, assembly, association, and some religious practices," it said.
The report cited allegations of mistreatment and torture, especially of activists and said Shiites were under-represented in the civil service, police and security forces.
The government censored stories especially those related to sectarianism, national security, or criticism of the royal family, the Saudi royal family, or the judiciary, it said.
"According to some members of the media, government officials contacted editors directly and asked them to stop writing about certain subjects or asked them not to publish a press release or a story," the U.S. report said.
Also Friday, Human Rights Watch denounced what it called arbitrary detentions and said freed detainees interviewed reported incidents of beatings and abuse. The U.S.-based rights group called on the government to report and give a reason for all detentions.