Security forces have killed at least 34 people during one of the largest anti-government protests so far in Syria.
Security forces fired on at least two of the demonstrations demanding president Bashar Assad's removal and renewed their assault on towns seen as key to the revolt against the regime's 40-year rule.
Residents said security forces and snipers fired at tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in the city center in one of the biggest protests seen so far in Hama, and scores of wounded were taken to a nearby hospital.
The regime also cut Internet service across most of the country, activists said, a potentially dire blow for a movement that motivates people with graphic YouTube videos of the crackdown and loosely organizes protests on Facebook pages.
Denial of Internet access, if it continues, could also hamper the protest movement's ability to reach the world outside Syria, where the government has severely restricted the media and expelled foreign reporters, making it nearly impossible to independently verify what is happening there.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said tens of thousands of people were protesting in Hama when security forces opened fire. He said the Hama protest was among the largest yet in the 10-week uprising against president Bashar Assad's regime.
Syria's state-run TV said three "saboteurs" were killed when police tried to stop them from setting a government building on fire in Hama. The Syrian government blames armed gangs and religious extremists for the violence.
As Friday prayers ended, worshippers left the mosques and marched in cities, towns and villages. Syrian security forces dispersed some, mostly using batons, tear gas and water cannons and fired live ammunition in at least two locations in southern and northeastern towns.
Rights groups say more than 1,100 people have been killed since the revolt against president Assad erupted in mid-March.
An eyewitness in Hama said unprecedented numbers of people took part in today's protest in Hama.
He described a chaotic scene, with security forces firing tear gas and live ammunition and snipers shooting from the rooftops as people fled. He said there were around 150,000 demonstrators.
"There are many killed and wounded people, the hospital is full," he said. "I fled the area but I can still hear sporadic gunfire."
Syrian troops also pounded the central town of Rastan with artillery and gunfire, killing at least two people. The local co-ordination committees, which helps organise and document Syria's protests, says troops also opened fire on residents fleeing the town.
Today's deaths bring the toll in Rastan and nearby Talbiseh to 74 killed since the attack started last Saturday.
The opposition has called for nationwide rallies today to commemorate the nearly 30 children killed by president Assad's regime during the uprising.
In the southern city of Daraa, where the uprising began 10 weeks ago, scores of people rallied in the city's old quarter, chanting "No dialogue with the killers of children," an activist said.
The protesters were referring to a decree by president Assad to set up a committee tasked with leading a national dialogue.
The regime also released hundreds of political prisoners this week after president Assad issued a pardon. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said leading Kurdish politician Mashaal Tammo and Muhannad al-Hassani, who heads the Syrian Organization for Human Rights, were released yesterday.
Video surfaced earlier this week on YouTube, Facebook and websites of Hamza al-Khatib, a 13-year-old boy whose tortured and mutilated body was returned to his family weeks after he disappeared during the protests.
The boy has since become a symbol to Syria's uprising and many people carried his posters during anti-regime rallies this week.
"They are worried about today's demonstrations after Hamza al-Khatib's video," said the activists, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisals.
AP