The three were killed when security forces in Daraa opened fire with rubber bullets and live rounds to disperse stone-throwing protesters, the rights activist told AFP by telephone, asking not to be named for security reasons.
Syrian security forces shot dead at least three protesters today in the flashpoint town of Daraa, activists said as thousands rallied for democracy for the fourth week after Muslim prayers.
The three were killed when security forces in Daraa opened fire with rubber bullets and live rounds to disperse stone-throwing protesters, the rights activist told AFP by telephone, asking not to be named for security reasons.
"Thousands of demonstrators leaving from three mosques marched to the courthouse but security forces dressed in civilian clothing fired tear gas to disperse them," said the activist.
"Demonstrators threw stones and clashes ensued," he added.
Daraa, some 100 kilometres south of Damascus, has been the focal point of anti-government protests marred by deadly violence which human rights activists blame on the security services and the government has attributed to an "armed" group.
President Bashar al-Assad, under popular pressure to introduce major political reforms and end emergency powers which give security services great leeway to crush dissent, has ordered a probe into Daraa's protest casualties.
Thousands of people on Friday also marched in five towns in northern Syria, mainly in predominantly Kurdish Hassake and Ammuda, calling for an end to emergency rule and the release of prisoners, another rights activist said.
"More than 3,000 people, Kurds, Arabs and Assyrians (Christians), demonstrated in Qamishli after Friday prayers before staging a sit-in on the main road," Kurdish rights activist Radif Mustafa told AFP.
"There were 2,000 (Kurdish) demonstrators in Ammuda, 1,500 in Deirbassiye, and hundreds in Hassake and two other districts... calling for the release 200 Kurdish prisoners and the abolition of emergency law," he added.
The demonstrators chanted "God, Syria and Freedom" and "Neither Arabs, nor Kurds, national unity," according to Mustafa.
The rallies came one day after President Assad granted citizenship to tens of thousands of Kurds, who had been denied nationality for nearly half a century due to a controversial census.
Abdel Karim Rihawi, head of the Syrian League for the Defence of Human Rights, told AFP several thousands demonstrated in the port city of Banias and Tal, 20 kilometres north of Damascus.
The rallies, he said, were staged in solidarity with the "martyrs" of the protest centres of Douma, Daraa and Latakia, and demonstrators chanted "God, Syria and Freedom."
In the industrial city of Homs, 160 kilometres north of Damascus, and in Harasta, near the capital, clashes broke out between security forces and protesters, witnesses said.
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