In an echo of Egypt's Tahrir square have thousands of demonstrators swear put mines on the main square in the Central Syrian city of Hims, stay until their demands are met.
President al-Assad has promised again to repeal an emergency law that has been in force since 1963.
But the pro-democracy only to intensify protests, Barney Porter reports displayed as.
BARNEY PORTER: Protests against the authoritarian rule of Bashar al-Assad President broke in the southern city of Deraa more than a month ago and have slowly spread over the country.
The current focus is the city of Hims, the third largest country.
Human rights activists say that more than a dozen people were killed during the protests against the death in custody of a local tribal leader.
This man said he had seen the BBC.
HOMS RESIDENT (translated): there was a peaceful sit-in in the city of Homs for hours without problems or vandalism or destruction of private or public property. The sit-in was forcibly at 4: 30 in the afternoon, a large number of injuries and martyr raided a large security led.
Enter the main street of the District of the Western and eastern sides and have been through a number of young people, the stones they threw faced. Their response was intense and heavy machine gun fire, including indiscriminate fire on balconies and Windows, and doors of nearby houses.
BARNEY PORTER: The Ministry of the Interior the wave of unrest an armed uprising described as blaming the violence on ultra conservative gangs and intruders with weapons from the Lebanon and Iraq delivered.
State TV has presented his version of events show were images of the security forces, that which it says were injured in the current discussions.
State TV report (translation): it was a rally of 50 to 60 people. You blocked the road to destroy setting of cars in brand and business. Their faces were covered. When we approached them, she ran away. Then others joined us from rooftops. They were hidden and is fired from small lanes to us.
BARNEY PORTER: the weekend President Assad said legislation replace emergency law from almost half a century should be available until next week.
Since then, the Ministry of the Interior but signalled a tougher response to the protests.
Bassam Haddad is the Director of Middle East Studies at George Mason University in the United States.
He says if the Syrian Government to respond to demands for political reform by enforcing a crackdown on dissent, it only more problems for themselves to create.
BASSAM HADDAD: It seems that the regime is starting to lose the initiative and makes, more and more irrelevant responds that not more seriously to the demands of the demonstrators, and actually caused a shift from the battle or the conflict of something, which is something more political, on the streets of held Syrian cities.
And this can only mean that we of no return can be crossed in the point for the escalation of protests and the widespread development of these protests in all cities.
BARNEY PORTER: And there is a further development. Published, citing diplomatic cable from WikiLeaks, the Washington Post reported newspaper, that the US State Department has secretly Syrian opposition groups funding.
The paper says, that the cable show, that the State Department has several to use millions of dollars since 2005 a group of Syrian exiles come also finance a satellite channel London Barada TV, and activities in Syria.
State Department spokesman, has denied the United States mark toner, financed regime change.
MARK TONER: We are not working, undermining the Government. What we are trying in Syria through our support of civil society is build the kind of democratic institutions, truth be told, we try in countries around the globe.
BARNEY PORTER: Malik Al Abdeh is editor in Chief of the Barada TV. He says the station is committed to a free media in Syria and objectives such as corruption.
But he has also said there is no direct funding is the BBC from the US Government. He dismissed the veracity of the documents.
MALIK AL ABDEH: there is a lot of which was the report much hearsay said by staff of the US Embassy to activists in Syria. Much of what is not said just right. Now reports people the WikiLeaks documents are as if it were Gospel. Of course it has to make context and of course, we know that not everything in the WikiLeaks document to true is set.
EMILY BOURKE: Journalist Malik Al Abdeh ends this report by Barney Porter.
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