Several killed at Friday protests in Syria

At least 21 Syrians, including a prominent Kurdish rights activist, have been killed amid protests by thousands against Bashar al-Assad's government and in support of a newly formed opposition front, activists say.

Friday's surge of violence came as the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, said President Assad would have to leave power if he failed to implement reforms acceptable to the opposition, and the Syrian government again blamed "terrorists" for the unrest.

Four civilians, including two elderly men, were shot dead in the central city of Homs by security forces and four others in the outskirts of Damascus, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The 53-year-old Kurdish activist and opposition spokesman, Meshaal Tammo, was killed when four masked assailants stormed his house in Qamishli, in northern Syria, and opened fire, also wounding his son and another fellow activist in the Kurdish Future Party, activists said.

Thousands of Kurds took to the streets in Qamishli after Tammo's death, and gathered outside the hospital where his body was taken.

The official SANA news agency reported Tammo's "assassination", but gave a different account of his death. It said he was killed "by gunmen in a black car who fired at his car".

Tammo, a member of the newly formed Syrian National Council (SNC) opposition grouping, had been released recently after three and a half years in prison.

Al Jazeera's Rula Amin, reporting from Beirut in neighbouring Lebanon, said the protests were still going strong, even after six months of demonstrations.

"The government is continuing its crackdown," she said. "The opposition insists on the fall of the regime and the government insists it will end the wave of protests."

A 10th man was shot dead on Friday by security forces in the flashpoint northern town of Jisr al-Shughur near the Turkish border, the Local Co-ordination Committees activist network reported.

Opposition targeted

In another development, Riad Seif, a prominent opposition figure and former MP, had to be given hospital treatment after being beaten outside a mosque in the capital's commercial neighbourhood of Medan.

Mosques in Syria, as happens every week, again became springboards for Friday anti-government protests, also this time in support of the SNC, formed to represent the main opposition groups, activists said.

Pro-democracy activists had called for fresh demonstrations under the banner: "The Syrian National Council is our representative, mine, yours and that of all Syrians."

Demonstrators in the flashpoint Damascus district of Barzeh carried slogans affirming their "complete support" for the SNC, YouTube videos showed, while protesters in Homs chanted "the people want the fall of the president".

In the Homs neighbourhood of Qurabeyd, demonstrators raised their shoes - a sign of disrespect - alongside photographs of Assad with his face crossed out, a YouTube video showed.

Activists also documented anti-government and pro-SNC rallies in the Damascus neighbourhood of Qabun, the eastern town of Abu Kamal and Qamishli in the north, where security forces fired on protesters and arrested 10.

Security forces and paramilitaries locally known as the "shabiha" surrounded mosques in Damascus suburbs, in Homs and in the Mediterranean cities of Banias and Latakia, activists said.

In Deraa, thousands of demonstrations trampled on giant Russian and Chinese flags, in a sign of discontent at the two UN Security Council members blocking a resolution calling for "targeted measures" against Assad.

'Terrorist threats'

Syria authorities have to comment on the formation of the SNC. But the country's deputy foreign minister has said more than 1,100 people have been killed by "terrorists" in the revolt that has shaken the country since March.

"Syria is grappling with terrorist threats," Faysal Mekdad said in a speech to the 47-state UN Human Rights Council.

"In the next few days we will give the High Commissioner for Human Rights a list of martyrs... civil servants, police ... more than 1,100 people who have been killed by the terrorists."

Russia's Medvedev unexpectedly piled pressure on Syria, just days after Moscow and China vetoed the UN resolution.

"If the Syrian leadership is unable to undertake these reforms, it will have to go. But this is something that has to be decided not by NATO or individual European countries but by the people and leadership of Syria," ITAR-TASS news agency quoted Medvedev as saying.

"It's one more friend of Assad who is warning him and adding more pressure on the government in Damascus," Al Jazeera's Amin said.

"Obviously the Russians have used their veto to block any UN resolution condemning Syria, but today [Medvedev] was very blunt ... it was the starkest warning from the Russians so far to their friend in Damascus."

In wielding its veto on Tuesday, Russia said it feared the resolution could be used for military action against Syria.

Russia, China and others still accuse NATO of abusing UN resolutions on Libya to launch air attacks this year.

The UN has said it now estimates the crackdown has killed more than 2,900 people since mid-March.

Analysts say that the unrest, which began as peaceful protests, is becoming increasingly armed in response to the government's relentless attacks on protesters.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies