Daraa, Syria: Thousands of Syrians took to the streets Friday demanding reforms and mourning dozens of protesters who were killed during a violent, weeklong crackdown that has brought extraordinary pressure on the country`s autocratic regime.
There were no immediate reports of serious violence.
Daraa, the main city of southern Syria`s drought-parched agricultural heartland, has become a flashpoint for protests in a country whose leadership stands unafraid of using extreme violence to quash internal unrest. The coming days will be a crucial test of the surge of popular discontent that has unseated autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt and threatens to push several others from power.
Sheltering in Daraa`s Roman-era old city, the protesters have persisted through seven days of increasing violence by security forces, but have not inspired significant unrest in other parts of the country.
On Friday, demonstrations were planned in Daraa and throughout the country in what organizers called a "Day of Dignity."
But journalists who tried to enter Daraa`s Old City — where most of the violence took place — were escorted out of town Friday by two security vehicles.
"As you can see, everything is back to normal and it is over," an army major, standing in front of the ruling Baath party head office in Daraa, told journalists before they were led out of the city.
In the hours that followed, reports on social media networks said crowds were gathering, but they could not immediately be independently confirmed.
After the Friday prayers in the village of Dael, near Daraa, men on motorcycles and cars honked their horns while several hundred men marched, some of them carrying Syrian flags and chanting: "Dael and Daraa will not be humiliated!"
Plainclothes security agents watched without interfering.
Scores of people were gathering in surrounding villages in what appeared to be preparation to march to Daraa. But Syrian soldiers deployed along the highway, apparently to prevent such a march.
A human rights activist, quoting witnesses, said thousands of people were gathering in the town of Douma outside the capital, Damascus, pledging support for the people of Daraa. The activists asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution.
In the capital, about 200 people near the central Marjeh Square shouted "Our souls, our blood we sacrifice for you Daraa!" and "Freedom, freedom!"
Security forces dispersed the crowd by chasing them away, beating some with batons and detaining others, an activist said, asking that his name not be published for fear of reprisals by the government.
The activist also said he was hearing reports of gatherings in the coastal city of Latakia, the northern city of Raqqa and Zabadani in the west.
Earlier Friday, security forces appeared to be trying to reduce tension in Daraa by dismantling checkpoints and ensuring there was no visible army presence on the streets for the first time since last Friday, when the protests began.
Rattled by the unrest, the Syrian government Thursday pledged to consider lifting some of the Mideast`s most repressive laws in an attempt to stop the weeklong uprising from spreading and threatening its nearly 50-year rule.
But the promises were immediately rejected by many activists who called for demonstrations around the country on Friday in response to a crackdown that protesters say killed dozens of anti-government marchers in Daraa.
"We will not forget the martyrs of Daraa," a resident told The Associated Press by telephone. "If they think this will silence us they are wrong."
President Bashar Assad, a close ally of Iran and its regional proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas, has promised increased freedoms for discontented citizens and increased pay and benefits for state workers — a familiar package of incentives offered by other nervous Arab regimes in recent weeks.
Presidential adviser Buthaina Shaaban also said the Baath party would study ending a state of emergency that it put in place after taking power in 1963.
The emergency laws, which have been a feature of many Arab countries, allow people to be arrested without warrants and imprisoned without trial. Human rights groups say violations of other basic liberties are rife in Syria, with torture and abuse common in police stations, detention centers and prisons, and dissenters regularly imprisoned for years without due process.
The death toll from the weeklong crackdown was unclear and could not be independently confirmed. Shaaban says 34 people had been killed in the conflict.
Bureau Report
