CAIRO — Massive protests calling for the ouster of Syria’s authoritarian president turned deadly again Friday, with witnesses and human rights workers reporting the deaths of as many as three dozen protesters across the country and the government saying for the first time that members of its security forces had also been killed.
In several of those areas, violent clashes broke out between demonstrators and security forces, with the worst violence occurring in Daraa, where the protests originated last month. At least 25 people were killed in the city and demonstrators had turned the Omari Mosque into a hospital, rights activists said.
“The situation there is disastrous,” the activist in Damascus said, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Ammar Qurabi, chair of the Syrian National Organization for Human Rights, said at least 37 people died nationwide, including 30 in and around Daraa. Qurabi, who is in Egypt, said outages of cellphone service forced human rights workers to use service from neighboring Jordan to follow events there.
State-run media reported that 19 security personnel were killed and 75 injured in Daraa. The Sana news agency blamed the shootings on “armed groups” firing from rooftops and masked gunmen riding motorcycles through the crowds. Witnesses also described the torching of a building belonging to the ruling Baath Party.
The violence continued into the night, with security forces opening fire on demonstrators who continued to gather at a square in Latakia, the activist said.
“There are families, not just young people” among the demonstrators, the activist said.
The protests appear to have unnerved the regime led by Assad, whose family has controlled Syria for more than 40 years. The 45-year-old president, who inherited power from his father 11 years ago, was initially seen as a reformer, but he has remained an autocrat whose country is one of the most rigid in the Middle East.
In the face of the protests, Assad has offered only limited steps toward reform, stopping short of lifting the country’s reviled emergency laws. The gestures have failed to satisfy a growing protest movement that is demanding concrete changes and free elections.
The Syrian government has blamed armed gangs and foreign instigators for the violence, insisting that the protests do not reflect authentic calls for change.
In Yemen, witnesses and medical officials said security forces fired guns and tear gas canisters in the southern city of Taiz, killing three people and injuring scores of others, during protests calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down. But Saleh, who has been in power for 32 years, issued a defiant statement suggesting he had no plans to relinquish control or begin talks with the opposition.
Tens of thousands of pro- and anti-government demonstrators also took to the streets in the capital, Sanaa.
In Jordan, a man was in critical condition after setting himself on fire Thursday in front of the prime minister’s office, in the first such act of protest there, emulating the action of a Tunisian vendor late last year that triggered a chain reaction of protests across the region.
In Cairo, tens of thousands of Egyptians flocked to Tahrir Square following midday prayers to demand that ousted president Hosni Mubarak and members of his former government be held to account for repressing and looting the country.
“We will never stop these demonstrations until the corrupt officials are put on trial,” said Khaled Ahmed, a 39-year-old hotel worker.
kunklef@washpost.com
Correspondent Sudarsan Raghavan in Sanaa, Yemen, and special correspondent Haitham Tabei in Cairo contributed to this report.
The Watchdog 
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