Syrian Protesters Emerge Amid Clashes and Bombing During a Holiday Cease-Fire

With the threat of violence diminished, protesters emerged in the streets of cities and towns across the country. Syrian state television showed President Bashar al-Assad making a rare public appearance, attending the morning prayers for the start of the holiday, Id al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice, in a central Damascus mosque. There was no sound, but Mr. Assad was seen to be chatting amicably with other worshipers.

The most brazen violation appeared to be a car bomb that exploded near what state television said was a playground in southern Damascus. The report broadcast images of a fire truck hosing down wreckage that state television said was caused by the bomb. There was significant damage and a number of casualties, the official report said, without being more specific. Amateur video uploaded on YouTube showed extensive destruction.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the violence from abroad, said the blast killed 8 people and injured more than 30, including children. The reports said the explosion occurred in Zuhur, a poor, mostly Sunni neighborhood. Previous car bombs, often claimed by extremist organizations, usually targeted security branches.

The Syrian Army announced late Thursday that it would cease military operations from Friday to Monday in observance of the holiday. The General Command of the Army said it reserved the right to respond to attacks by the rebels, which it universally refers to as “armed terrorist gangs,” and it issued a statement Friday saying that it had.

The statement, carried by the official news agency, SANA, said that attackers had targeted several military posts throughout the country. In accordance with its early vow to respond, “the Armed Forces are firing back and confronting the armed terrorist groups,” the statement said.

The remainder of the truce was likely to be tested repeatedly, given the splintered nature of fighting across Syria, although the bulk of the opposition seemed to accept respecting it if the government did. The cease-fire was negotiated by Lakhdar Brahimi, the international envoy trying to inaugurate a peace process.

Respect for the cease-fire was uneven, with some reports of fighting filtering in before and after the dawn prayers. Since there was no official deadline for the cease-fire to begin, and no monitors or outside enforcement, its start and stop times were somewhat ad hoc.

Fighters in the northern city of Idlib, for example, said that it was quiet. But there were reports of clashes around a military base in northern Syria, and one neighborhood in the central city of Homs reported that it had been hit by six missiles.

The government, apparently anticipating street demonstrations, stationed security forces near mosques that tried to break up some of the protests, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

It said three people were wounded by gunfire in a hamlet near Dara’a, but activists in other places reported that the security forces had resorted to tear gas or that the shabiha, the plainclothes militia of government supporters, had been harassing men headed to prayers or to visit graves.

Protests long suppressed by wrenching violence emerged in the streets once again, calling for Mr. Assad’s ouster and, in some places, for his execution. The size of the protests themselves, larger and more widespread than they have been for many weeks, was the strongest indication that the truce had made a difference. Although the uprising started as a peaceful protest movement in March 2011, the escalating carnage that has claimed tens of thousands of lives eventually drove the demonstrators indoors.

Videos broadcast on YouTube showed protesters chanting antigovernment slogans in Hajar al-Aswad, for example, a southern Damascus suburb. The video could not be independently verified as having been made on Friday, but activists described similar scenes from around Aleppo in the north to Deir az-Zour in the east and Dara’a in the south.

Some of the chants at Hajar al-Aswad referred to recent reports of a split in the Alawite community, with a shootout apparently taking place on Sept. 29 between relatives of the president and his detractors in Qurdaha, Mr. Assad’s hometown, in the Alawite-dominated mountains above Latakia.

As the Syrian protest movement has increasingly degenerated into a fight between the Sunni majority and the Alawite minority, there had been few cracks in the unity among the Alawites until that episode.

“Come on, Qurdaha! Come on, Qurdaha!” protesters in Hajar al-Aswad chanted.

Should the cease-fire endure through the end of the holiday, it would be the first time since April that the two sides diminished the tempo of the violence. That previous cease-fire, arranged by Mr. Brahimi’s predecessor, Kofi Annan, was not respected by either side, but the casualty toll dipped for several days.

In announcing the cease-fire plan on Wednesday, Mr. Brahimi had said that he hoped it could serve as a building block to something longer and more sustainable.