Syrian forces kill 11 as observers fan out

Regime forces fired on protesters at a protest hub near Damascus and killed at least 11 people around Syria yesterday, even as peace monitors spread out across the country, activists said.
At least three demonstrators were killed and several others wounded in Douma, the protest centre just north of the capital, when security forces sprayed protesters with bullets outside a mosque, a rights group said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the shooting broke out as a Arab League observers arrived at Douma's city hall, on the third day of a mission designed to halt a lethal government crackdown on dissent.
The monitors were due to visit flashpoints around Damascus yesterday, as well as the northern and central cities of Idlib and Hama and southern Daraa province.
Activists say that more than 70 civilians have been killed by security forces since a first group of monitors arrived Monday in Syria on a month-long renewable mission to implement an Arab League peace plan.
Gunfire rattled in Douma where "tens of thousands" of protesters rallied outside the Grand Mosque and regime forces opened fire on the demonstrators "as Arab observers arrived at the city hall," sources said.
The Observatory also reported that security forces shot dead three people in the Damascus suburbs of Aarbin and Kiswah, and two more people further north in Idlib province, while three others died in the central city of Hama.
Emboldened by the presence of observers, Facebook activists are urging regime opponents to take to the streets across Syrian on Friday, the weekly day of rest that has been a pivotal time for democracy protests.
On Tuesday, when a group of observers entered Homs, on the first leg of a month-long visit to flashpoint centres, some 70,000 people flooded the streets, according to activists.
Security forces showered them with gunfire and tear gas and the monitors cut short their visit to Homs, described by activists as the "martyr" city where hundreds have died in a government crackdown since March.