AMMAN - The United States, reacting to the killing of 27 demonstrators by the Syrian security forces Friday, threatened to take new measures against the Government of Syria unless it stopped killing and his people of harassment.
Rights activists said dead among the thousands of protesters who demonstrated after Friday prayers in cities across the country of Banias on the Mediterranean coast to Qamishly Kurdish East, demanding an end to the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.
The European Union has agreed to impose sanctions in response to the violent repression of Assad on the demonstrators, which the activists say has killed more than 580 people.
"The United States believed deplorable actions of than the Syria to its mandate of people a strong international response," Press Secretary White House Jay Carney said in a statement.
"Lack of significant change in the current approach of the Syrian Government, including an end for the demonstrators killing Government... to the United States and its international partners will take additional steps to clarify our strong opposition to the treatment of the Syrian Government of its people."
Imposed United States of its own sanctions last week against certain figures in the Syrian Government.
More bloody confrontation Friday was in the city of Homs where 15 demonstrators were killed, said Ammar Qurabi activist.
Television State said an army officer and four policemen were killed in Homs by a "criminal gang", although another activist, Wissam tariff, said witnesses him nine soldiers fact defection in Homs to the demonstrators and may have faced other troops.
Four demonstrators were killed at Deir el - Zor, said a local tribal chief of the region that produces the largest part of 380,000 barrels per day of oil Syria. They were the first reported death there in seven weeks of unrest throughout the country.
International criticism mounted against Al-Assad, which is passed to the offensive to maintain the grip of four decades of his family on the power in the country of 20 million and to crush the demonstrators demanding freedom.
European Union governments agreed Friday to impose assets of gels and travel on to 14 Syrian officials responsible for the violent repression.
Officials accuse the "army of terrorist groups" of the violence, give a lower number of deaths and say that half the deaths were soldiers and police officers. They say demonstrators are few in number and do not represent the majority of the Syrians.
Assad himself was not covered by the sanctions, following the agreement of the EU in principle last week to impose an arms embargo on the Syria. The measures will be approved Monday if no State member object.
Assad the assault troops Adraa City last week, and security forces prevented protesters establishing a platform as Tahrir square to the Egypt by blocking access to the capital Damascus. But each week protesters have used Friday prayers to launch fresh steps.
"People want the overthrow of the regime," 2,000 demonstrators shouted in the suburbs of Damascus's Saqba.
Sequences released on the Internet and has been distributed on television Al Jazeera showed protesters in several cities with the same calls for freedom and the change of direction.
"7,000 ARRESTED"
Hama, where Assad father has brutally repressed an armed Islamist uprising in 1982, a rights activist said security forces shot dead six demonstrators.
The Syrian Observatory based in London for human rights, said one protester was killed in Latakia and three wounded.
Despite severe repression, the demonstrators appear determined to maintain the requirements for an end to years of repression, arrests without trial and the corruption of the ruling elite.
Will "the Syrian people not back down after the country's budding youth killed hundreds," said Montaha El Atrache from the Syrian Sawasiah human rights organization.
Opposition leader Riad Seif, who helped launch a peaceful movement who seek democracy and political freedoms 10 years ago, was arrested in one of the demonstrations Friday, said his daughter.
Thursday the authorities have arrested prominent Damascus preacher Mouaz al-Khatib, a major figure of the revolt, rights activists, said Friday.
A Western diplomat said 7,000 people had been arrested since the protests broke out on 18 March at Deraa.
DERAA "SEAT".
Last week, Al-Assad ordered the army to Adraa, cradle of the insurgency that started with demands for greater freedom and put an end to corruption and is now pressing for his removal.
A division of ultra-loyalist conducted by his brother Maher were bombed and machinegunned Adraa of old quarter Saturday, said residents. The United States condemned the attack as "barbaric."
The Syrian authorities said Thursday the army had started to leave Deraa, but residents described a city still under siege.
Human Rights Watch quoted figures saying Syrian rights groups 350 people were killed there.
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