Syria protests: Three killed in Homs after prayers
Amateur footage has emerged of various demonstrations on Friday
At least three people have been killed as thousands attended anti-government protests across Syria after Friday prayers, human rights activists say.
The casualties were reported in the country's third city, Homs, where at least one demonstrator was shot in the head when security forces opened fire.
There were also reports of gunfire in the restive southern city of Deraa.
Earlier, an opposition leader said President Bashar al-Assad had promised troops would not fire on protesters.
Louai al-Hussain was quoting a presidential adviser, Buthaina Shaaban, after talks with officials to negotiate an end to the crisis.
Ms Shaaban made a similar statement when demonstrations began in mid-March. As many as 850 people may have been killed since then.
Homs has been the scene of a major military operation since Monday. Areas have been shelled by tanks, and troops have been conducting house-to-house searches and arrests to find or intimidate protesters.
The Syrian government says it is pursuing "armed terrorist gangs", which it blames for the deaths of about 98 soldiers and members of the security services nationwide, and 22 police officers.
'Huge crowd'As Friday prayers came to an end, reports started to come in of protest marches leaving mosques in many parts of the country.
The first came from the mostly Kurdish, north-eastern town of Qamishli, where protesters carried a huge flag with the word "freedom" spelled out in Kurdish. There were some scuffles, but the rally ended peacefully.
Protests were also reported in a number of other towns and cities, including in the centre of Homs, where at least three people were killed, activists told the BBC.
"At first they opened fire in the air but the people continued... and then they shot directly into the crowd," one told the Associated Press.
Witnesses also said there were protests in central Hama, where Mr Assad's father crushed an uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood in 1982.
Security forces initially held back, but later used batons, tear gas and water cannons to disperse the large crowd, they added. Protesters succeeded in ripping down a portrait of the president on the town hall.
There were also said to be gatherings in the Zahra, Mezzeh and Muhajirin areas of Damascus, and several outlying suburbs.
In the northern suburbs of Barzeh and Saqba, to the north of the capital, protesters reportedly chanted: "We want the overthrow of the regime."
In the north-eastern town of Douma, arrests were reported, while in Daraya, to the west, security forces and militiamen fired tear gas.
One activist told the Associated Press that two people had been killed in Damascus and one in a village outside Deraa, the epicentre of the anti-government unrest.
The Syrian government says it is pursuing "armed terrorist gangs" Information Minister Adnan Hassan Mahmoud said army units had completed their withdrawal from Deraa and started a gradual withdrawal from the coastal city of Baniyas.
Residents of Deraa said there were still tanks outside mosques and that troops had fired into the air to disperse a large demonstration after Friday prayers, while those in Baniyas said hundreds of troops were still deployed there.
Mr Mahmoud also said there would be a "national and comprehensive dialogue" in all governorates in the coming days.
Meanwhile, the UK Foreign Office said that its political director, Geoffrey Adams, had summoned Syrian ambassador Sami Khiyami to express its "profound concern about the Syrian government's violent repression of its own citizens".
The UK along with its EU partners "would take further measures to hold the regime to account", including further sanctions targeting senior officials, unless the crackdown stopped, Mr Adams warned.
A spokesman of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said earlier that 700 to 850 people had been killed in the two-month-long crackdown. The figure was based on accounts from rights activists.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says it fears hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people in Syria have been detained.
Reports from Syria are hard to verify independently, as foreign journalists are not allowed into the country.
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Qamishli
A mobile phone snapshot, reportedly taken in Qamishli on 29 April, shows protesters carrying banners written in Arabic and Kurdish demanding democracy.
Damascus
This footage, which the BBC cannot verify, seems to show demonstrators in Midan, central Damascus, on Friday afternoon. A source in Damascus says he could see a lot of security and police officers in the main areas of Damascus after protests began after Friday prayers finished.
Talbisah
This unverified video seems to show a peaceful protest in Talbisah. Moments into the footage, tanks fire on unarmed civilians. Wyre Davis reports.
Deraa
A soldier walks past men in civilian clothes lying on the ground with their hands tied behind their backs in this still photo taken from an amateur video.
Homs
11 May: The Times' chief foreign correspondent, Martin Fletcher, tells the BBC Radio Four's Today programme how he was detained in Homs and the hard line that Syria is taking with protesters.
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