Syrian forces shot dead at least 11 people during mass protests on Friday against President Bashar al-Assad, rights activists and witnesses said.
Five civilians were killed overnight in Homs, 165 km (100 miles) north of the capital Damascus, when tanks were deployed to halt protests in the besieged city, residents said.
A further six were later shot dead in protests in the Damascus suburb of Mleeha, in Homs, and in the Idlib area in the northwest, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the National Organisation for Human Rights said.
"So far we have six martyrs across the country. All six were killed today," said Ammar Qurabi, head of the National Organisation for Human Rights.
The four-month-old uprising is the biggest challenge to Assad's authority since he succeeded his father 11 years ago and it is spreading.
Rights activists reported protests after Friday prayers in several places -- the Medan district of Damascus, Latakia on the coast, Deraa in the south and Deir al-Zor in the east -- as well as Homs, the latest focus of the armed crackdown on protesters.
"Tanks and armoured vehicles have deployed in Homs thoroughfares, but in every street adjacent to them there are people in the streets," a resident of Homs, who gave his name as Osama, said by telephone.
Once confined to outlying towns and rural regions, the uprising has now taken a firm hold in cities such as Homs and Hama, scene of a 1982 massacre by the military.
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