At least 55 people were killed across Syria on Friday as protesters erupted into the streets in several provinces after being urged to call for a "People's liberation war."The Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said regime forces killed 16 people in the countryside around Damascus
...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat...
, 11 in Daraa, nine in Idlib, eight in Homs, four in Damascus and two in Hama.
Meanwhile,
...back at the Senate, Odius Sepulcher called for war against the Visigoths...
an kaboom targeting a military vehicle killed at least five troops at Maaret al-Numan in the northwestern province of Idlib, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that two rebels also died in shelling there.
Regime forces opened fire on protesters in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, it said, adding that demonstrations also erupted in areas that were under bombardment by the army.
In the same province, much of which is rebel-held, eight air defence troops deserted to join the uprising against
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Sonny, disguised as Fredo, trying to be Mike...
, the watchdog added.
Their defections came on the same day top Syrian general Munaff Tlass, close to Assad and his family, was reported as having defected.
Elsewhere, festivities broke out in Damascus and its province, the Observatory said, adding that demonstrators erupted into the streets of several areas of the capital.
The bloodshed came as anti-regime activists urged protests calling for a "People's liberation war," according to one group, the Syrian Revolution Coordinators' Union.
In Damascus province, troops rained shells on the central town of Daraya, killing at least one civilian. Amateur video on YouTube showed medical volunteers trying in vain to treat one bloodied person there.
In the village of Nawa in the southern province of Daraa, cradle of the nearly 16-month uprising, shelling killed at least five people overnight, the Observatory said, adding that another six unidentified bodies were found there.
"Regime troops shot and shelled the civilian population here, and killed and injured many people," activists in Nawa told Agence La Belle France Presse, adding that the shelling followed a rebel Free Syrian Army attack on a military building.
Louay Rushdan of grassroots activists' network the Local Coordination Committees told AFP that the shelling in Nawa killed and maimed a large number of people, and that activists "found bodies that were completely burned. Other bodies were buried under the rubble."
Of 95 people killed on Thursday, 68 were civilians, 24 were soldiers and three were rebels, the watchdog added.