DAMASCUS: Syria's southern town of Daraa braced for further unrest on Saturday as residents prepared to bury their dead a day after a deadly security force crackdown on anti-regime protesters.
Daraa, the focus of a wave of protests against President Bashar al-Assad, was set to come to a standstill during the funerals of 17 people killed on Friday.
Another 10 people reportedly died in surrounding villages, and it was anticipated the burials would become an occasion for renewed protests.
"After midday prayers, they are getting ready to bury at least 17 of the dead from Friday and with the surrounding villages that number rises to 27," a human rights activist in Daraa, 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Damascus, told AFP by telephone.
"The burial of each of the martyrs will become a demonstration against the regime and in favour of freedom, even if the interior ministry statement warns there will be further violence," another local activist said.
All shops were closed in the southern agricultural town with a population of 85,000.
Ammar Qurabi, chairman of the Syrian National Human Rights Organisation, speaking from Cairo, said there had been 30 deaths in Daraa, three in the central industrial town of Homs, as well as three in Harasta and one in Douma, both Damascus suburbs.
"I fear the reaction of the authorities if the people of Daraa express their feelings too vociferously during the funerals, and it could turn into a bloodbath," he told AFP.
Residents in Daraa reported demonstrators were fired on, sprayed with tear gas and targeted by violent crowd control tactics on Friday.
"We are aware that live bullets, tear gas and another gas that causes fainting were used," Qurabi said on Friday.
The official SANA news agency said 19 members of the security forces were killed and 75 were wounded by "armed groups" in Daraa on Friday.
Assad, under pressure to introduce major political reforms and end emergency powers which give security services great leeway to crush dissent, has already ordered a probe into previous protest casualties in Daraa.
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton called on Syria Saturday to stop violence against protesters and immediately launch political reforms.
US President Barack Obama condemned what he called an "abhorrent" crackdown, and also hit out at violence committed by protesters.
"I strongly condemn the abhorrent violence committed against peaceful protesters by the Syrian government today and over the past few weeks," Obama said in a statement.
"I also condemn any use of violence by protesters. I call upon the Syrian authorities to refrain from any further violence against peaceful protesters."
Syria's interior ministry issued a blunt warning.
"We will not allow confusion between peaceful demonstrations and (acts of) sabotage (aimed at) sowing discord, harming national unity and destabilising the foundations of Syrian policy," SANA said on Saturday.
The statement spoke of "plotters... pushed by known foreign parties who reject the reforms and turn up their noses at the popular demands."
"These people have infiltrated the ranks of the demonstrators and fired indiscriminately to sow discord between the citizens and the security forces.
They have set fire to public institutions, attacked soldiers and security agents who refrained from opening fire, which caused a large number of dead and wounded among them."
In Homs, meanwhile, SANA said "hundreds of people had been wounded," including six members of the security forces.
Abdel Karim Rihawi, who heads the Syrian League for the Defence of Human rights, said several people were injured in clashes in Homs and that there had also been fighting in Harasta.
Rihawi also said several thousand people demonstrated in the port city of Banias and Tal, 20 kilometres north of Damascus.
SANA also spoke of demonstrations in Latakia, Banias and Qamishli, which it said were peaceful.
Thousands also marched in five towns in northern Syria, mainly in predominantly Kurdish Hassake and Ammuda, calling for an end to emergency rule and the release of prisoners, Kurdish rights activist Radif Mustafa told AFP.
Syrian rights activists estimated more than 130 people had been killed by Friday in clashes with security forces, mainly in Daraa and Latakia, since March 15.
Amnesty International put the overall figure at at least 171.
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