This post has been corrected. See the note at the bottom for details.

Massive protests erupted across Syria on Friday, most significantly in the heart of the capital, Damascus, despite an intensified government crackdown over the past week that sought to put a stop to the anti-government movement.

The video above says it shows hundreds and possibly thousands of protesters in the Midan area of Damascus chanting "break the siege of Dara," the restive southern city that has been cut off and reportedly shelled by the Syrian military since an early morning raid on Monday.

A few moments later, the crowd breaks into shouts of "Why are you afraid?" and "The people want to bring down the regime."

Government forces continued their assault on the key southern city of Dara on Tuesday as authorities tightened their grip on mobility and communication throughout Syria in an attempt to smother the protest movement gripping the country.

"The situation is very hard, moving from street to street means anxiety and ... martyrdom," a witness in Dara told the pan-Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera. "Tens have fallen and we cannot even remove the bodies from the streets."

Heavily armored troops backed by snipers reportedly opened fire on civilians for a second day after storming the city and cutting off electricity and phone networks, making reports that at least 25 people had been killed since Monday impossible to verify.

The video featured above claims to be shot on Tuesday in Dara and appears to show a small group of protesters facing off against an armored vehicle, appealing to the army for help and chanting "The army is with us" before coming under fire. As the rattle of gunfire quiets, the chanting starts again: "We're not afraid, the army is with us."

Reports of cracks within the armed forces have bolstered hope among some protesters that President Bashar Assad's grip is slipping, but Syrian military officers recently told the Los Angeles Times that they feared for their own lives if they resisted orders to fire on demonstrators.

A witness who was able to approach the outskirts of the besieged city reported clear signs of violence, including scorched cars and defaced images of the president and his father and predecessor, Hafez Assad.

A student protester was reportedly killed Monday when security forces opened fire to break up an anti-government protest at the University of Damascus, according to unconfirmed media reports.

The incident followed a weekend in which dozens of protesters across the country were reportedly killed in clashes with uniformed security forces and armed groups in civilian dress. Meanwhile, the leader of Syria's banned Muslim Brotherhood told Reuters that his movement was not behind the protests but that it supports their aims.

"The authorities had thought that killings and terror would scare the masses," said Mohammad Riad Shaqfa, who lives in exile in Saudi Arabia. "The effect has been the opposite; repression only fueled the protests."

In the 1980s, the Muslim Brotherhood was brutally rooted out of Syria by the late President Hafez Assad, father of the current president, Bashar Assad, It has been outlawed ever since. The support of the Muslim Brotherhood could help bolster the protest movement, but could also leave it vulnerable to accusations of external support or ties to fundamentalist Islamist groups.

This post has been corrected. See the note at the bottom for details.

At least three people were killed and scores wounded on Sunday as Syrian security forces kept up their assault on the coastal town of Baniyas, where anti-government protests have gained momentum in recent days, according to eyewitnesses.

"We just want our rights, but unfortunately we live under the thumb of a mafia, and that mafia belongs to Bashar Assad," said Hamad Orabi, a Baniyas resident, referring to the Syrian president. Orabi blamed armed groups with government ties for the eruption of violence in the city, which continued well into Sunday afternoon as land and mobile phone lines were often blocked.

"There are armed groups, some of them in civilian clothes, but they all belong to the government," he said. Orabi added that the recent bout of fighting began early Sunday morning following a peaceful march on Saturday night where protesters chanted "the people want to topple the regime," replacing earlier slogans calling for reform and freedom.

Meanwhile, Syrian state media reported on Sunday that Assad met with Bulgaria's foreign minister, Nikolay Mladenov, assuring him that Syria was on the road to "comprehensive reform."

Assad has sought to placate protesters with limited concessions in recent weeks, granting citizenship to approximately 300,000 stateless Kurds and establishing a committee to study the repeal of the emergency law, under which security forces continue to arrest and imprison activists. But the mounting death toll appears to be galvanizing a movement that has struggled to take root in many cities, including the capital of Damascus.

Human rights groups say more than 200 people throughout Syria have been killed in the unrest since the anti-government protest movement began in the southern town of Deraa almost a month ago, 37 of whom died on Friday in the single deadliest day so far.

Syrian officials have blamed "armed groups" sponsored by foreign interests for the violence, reporting a high number of casualties among police and security forces. The ministry of interior issued a statement on Friday warning that "there is no more room for leniency or tolerance in enforcing law, preserving security of country and citizens and protecting general order."

For the record, 3:32 a.m., April 11: A previous version of this post stated that human rights groups said that more than 300 people have been killed since the Syrian unrest began. The estimate is more than 200.

-- Meris Lutz in Beirut

Arab League head Amr Moussa has qualified comments he made criticizing the reported civilian toll from Western airstrikes in Libya, telling reporters in Cairo on Monday that the Arab League and the U.N. Security Council are "united" on the need to protect civilians.

"[The Arab League] respects the U.N. Security Council resolution, and there is no contradiction," Moussa said.

"We will continue working to protect civilians, and we will ask everybody to take this into consideration in any military operation," he added."We have received assurances that these issues, especially the protection of civilians, will remain a unanimous goal for the U.N. and the Arab League."

A coalition force including France, Britain and the U.S. continued strikes against Libyan military targets on Sunday night and Monday morning, demolishing a building in a compound belonging to Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi. Coalition military officials claim the building was a military command center.

 
Thousands of Lebanese turned out on Sunday in Beirut to protest the tribal and religious figureheads that embody the country's entrenched sectarian political system.

Critics say the confessional power-sharing agreement enshrined in the constitution and laws of Lebanon allows a small elite to dominate politics, dividing the spoils of the state among themselves and weakening the government while strengthening the systems of patronage that keep them in power.

"Today we are marching against the symbols of the sectarian system, which are the leaders, and for full equality between men and women, including the right for women to pass on their nationality," said Bassem Chit, one of the protest organizers.

Monday is Mother's Day in Lebanon. Under current Lebanese law, women who marry foreign men are not allowed to pass their citizenship to their spouses or their children, ostensibly to preserve the current sectarian balance between Muslims and Christians. Marriage, divorce and child custody are also handled by religious courts.

A coordinated attack by Western forces targeting Libyan air capabilities and armor appears to have succeeded in damaging Libyan military installations and armor, but Arab support for the no-fly zone may be waning.

Arab League head Amr Moussa told reporters Sunday that the Arab league thought the use of force was excessive following an overnight bombing campaign that Libya claims killed at least 48 people.

"What we want is civilians' protection, not shelling more civilians," he was quoted saying by the Associated Press.

The Los Angeles Times' Borzou Daragahi reported on Saturday night's bombing campaign from a rooftop in Tripoli (audio link) where heavy anti-aircraft fire could be heard from Kadafi's forces on the ground.

U.S., British and French forces sought to seriously limit Kadafi's ability to advance on rebel-held cities, but Al Jazeera reported on Sunday that Kadafi's forces continued to shell the rebel-held city of Misurata.

As of Sunday afternoon, conflicting reports had emerged on whether Kadafi's advance on Benghazi, the seat of the rebel movement, had been halted.

Statements from U.S. and British military officials on Sunday claimed a no-fly zone had been successfully imposed.

-- Meris Lutz in Beirut

Photo: A loyalist soldier was killed in a French airstrike outside the rebel-held city of Benghazi. Credit: Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters

More than 1,000 Iranians took part in an officially sanctioned protest Friday against the royal family of Bahrain and its Western allies in connection with a violent crackdown against largely Shiite anti-government demonstrators.

Protesters in Tehran shouted "Death to Al Khalifa in Bahrain" and "Death to America," referring to the close alliance between the Khalifa ruling family and the United States.

"We are all Muslims," protester Ali Asadpour, 58, told Babylon & Beyond. "We should be united against the arrogant power, the U.S., and we want an Islamic system in Bahrain."

Sunni government loyalists in Bahrain have tried to discredit the protest movement there by alleging it has ties with Iran and the Shiite paramilitary party Hezbollah in Lebanon, a claim the protesters deny.

Nevertheless, the Iranian government has been particularly outspoken in its criticism of Bahrain, and the two countries withdrew their ambassadors this week after the intervention of Saudi troops in Bahrain.

Iranian officials have also condemned American support for Bahrain, which is home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet. President Obama has called on the governments of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to show "maximum restraint" but did not condemn the violence or ask Saudi troops to withdraw from Bahrain.

U.S. and European politicians are more likely to accept a nuclear Iran to avoid military confrontation than their citizens are, a new survey has found. The "Transatlantic Trends: Leaders" study was commissioned by the German Marshall Fund to gauge the opinions and priorities of leaders on both sides of the Atlantic and their citizens.

The study found that should all nonmilitary means fail in preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, 50% of U.S. leaders and 51% of European leaders were ready to accept a nuclear Iran. But 62% of the American public and 46% of the European public were in favor of military action.

The study found, however, that Europeans and Americans differed on how they thought Iran should be dissuaded from pursuing its nuclear program.

"Of the nonmilitary options, there was a clear transatlantic 'carrot vs. stick' divide when it came to methods of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons," the report read. "While a plurality of the EU public (35%) and the EU leaders (48%) favored offering economic incentives to Iran, pluralities of the US public (41%) and US leaders (33%) preferred economic sanctions."

The survey also found that Americans in general viewed Turkey's ascension to the European Union more positively than did Europeans and were much more likely to see Turkey as sharing common Western values. U.S. leaders thought easing tensions in the Middle East was a higher priority than did the American public, but the American public was the only group that showed some optimism regarding the stabilization of Afghanistan.

-- Meris Lutz in Beirut and Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran

 Photo: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tours the Natanz, Iran, nuclear facility. Credit: AFP

A modest protest of several hundred people was held in Damascus, Syria, on Tuesday, with demonstrators demanding democratic reforms and the release of all political prisoners.

Amateur video posted on YouTube appears to show young men marching through the streets of Damascus shouting "God, Syria and freedom only" and "peaceful" as the man filming refers to the procession as the "March 15 intifada." The BBC reported that six protesters were detained by Syrian security forces.

The demonstration follows at least one failed attempt to hold a pro-reform protest in Syria following widespread pro-democracy demonstrations across the region.

-- Meris Lutz in Beirut

Video: Protesters shout slogans for freedom and peaceful protest during a march through Damascus.  Credit: YouTube

Bahrain on Tuesday recalled its ambassador to Iran after an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman decried the "unacceptable" presence of foreign troops in Bahrain, Iranian state media reported.

Additional security forces from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates entered Bahrain on Tuesday at the behest of the ruling family in order to help "secure government installations" amid widespread anti-government protests.

"The presence of foreign forces and interference in Bahrain's internal affairs is unacceptable and will further complicate the issue," said Ramin Mehmanparast at his weekly news conference in Tehran on Tuesday.

Just a few hours later, Bahrain recalled its ambassador in protest of what Bahraini officials described as "blatant interference" in its internal affairs by Tehran.

Bahraini government loyalists have sought to discredit the protest movement by alleging ties to Iran and the Shiite militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The anti-government protest movement includes Shiite opposition parties who have complained of mistreatment at the hands of the Sunni-dominated government. Protesters maintain they are motivated by political, not sectarian, grievances, and deny any ties to foreign powers.

-- Meris Lutz in Beirut and Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran

Photo: Anti-government protests in Bahrain have entered their fourth week. Credit: Phil Weymouth / AFP/Getty Images

The Doha, Qatar-based Al Jazeera news network has been credited with helping to sustain protest movements across the region with its wall-to-wall coverage, but will its editorial line change now that Qatar has voiced support for Saudi intervention in Bahrain?

On Monday, Qatar's prime minister, Sheik Hamad Jassim ibn Jaber al Thani, held a phone interview with Al Jazeera's Khadija Bin Qinna and Mohammad Kurayshan in which he characterized the deployment of security forces from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in Bahrain as "assistance and support" within the framework of existing agreements.

"I think the call of his highness the Bahraini crown prince for dialogue is a sincere one that should be well taken by all parties," he said, after refusing to rule out the possibility of Qatari troops being deployed as well.

"We believe that in order for dialogue to succeed, we have to defuse this tension through the withdrawal of all from the street and through the return of the language of dialogue and compassion among all segments of the Bahraini people," he added.

Bin Qinna and Kurayshan pressed the prime minister concerning statements from the Bahraini opposition warning that it considers the presence of foreign troops to be an "occupation," to which he responded by reiterating his support for dialogue.

Al Jazeera is considered among the most credible Arabic news sources, but it has been accused at certain times of allowing its royal backer's political affiliations to skew its coverage. Al Jazeera Arabic, in particular, has recently been criticized for what some see as its overly careful handling of violent clashes between Bahraini protesters and government forces.

-- Meris Lutz in Beirut

Photo: Saudi troops enter Bahrain on Monday. Credit: AFP/Getty Images