At least seventeen protesters have been killed in the southern Syrian city of Daraa, witnesses said.
Security forces fired tear gas and live ammunition as thousands of protesters gathered in Daraa, the city that has become the epicentre of the country’s protest movement.
The death toll rose to seventeen after it was initially reported that four people had been killed, a hospital source and an activist said.
Protest organisers have called on Syrians to take to the streets every Friday for the past three weeks, demanding reform 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.
The reports could not be independently confirmed. Syria has restricted media access since the protests began three weeks ago. Human rights groups have said at least 100 people have been killed in the security crackdown.
President Assad had tried to quell the protests by offering a series of concessions this week. He issued a decree granting citizenship to more than 250,000 Kurds registered as aliens in the Hasaka province records, fulfilling a key demand by the country’s long-ostracised minority.
Mr Assad also sacked the governor of central Homs province, which has been the scene of clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces in the past three weeks.