Armed groups opened fire on citizens and security forces in the Damascus suburb of Douma and in the city of Homs, the Syrian state news agency reported today, quoting an official source.
The SANA agency said several people were killed and wounded.
"An official source said an armed group took to the rooftops of some buildings in Douma after midday and opened fire on hundreds of citizens gathering in the city and on security forces," it said.
"In the city of Homs, an armed group opened fire on a gathering of citizens in the Bayyada district, which resulted in the death of a girl," SANA added.
The protesters marched in several cities today, rejecting a limited reform gesture by president Bashar al-Assad.
Civic activists said that protests broke out in the capital Damascus, Banias and the port city of Latakia against Mr Assad's authoritarian rule after he stopped short of a clear commitment to meet popular demands for more freedoms.
Two weeks of unprecedented unrest in the tightly controlled Arab state, under monolithic Baath Party rule for almost 50 years, has left at least 61 people over the past two weeks.
Security forces and Assad loyalists attacked protesters with batons as they left the Rifaii mosque in the Kfar Sousseh district of Damascus after Friday prayers, a witness said.
At least six other protesters were arrested and dozens where beaten as they made their way out of the mosque.
Around 200 worshippers chanted slogans in support of the southern city of Deraa where the unrest kindled by pro-democracy uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world first erupted.
Online democracy activists had called for protests across Syria on "Martyrs' Friday", after a spate of pro-democracy demonstrations challenging Assad's 11 years in power.
Activists said security forces and Mr Assad loyalists had earlier gathered in force around the mosques where protests resumed after Friday prayers.
In his first public appearance since the demonstrations began, Mr Assad declined on Wednesday to spell out any reforms, especially the lifting of a 48-year-old emergency law that has been used to stifle opposition and justify arbitrary arrests.
Yesterday he ordered the creation of a panel that would draft anti-terrorism legislation to replace emergency law, a move critics have dismissed, saying they expect the new legislation will give the state much of the same powers.
Mr Assad also formed a panel tasked with investigating the deaths of civilians and security forces in Deraa and in Latakia, where clashes that authorities blamed on "armed gangs" occurred last week, killing 12 people, according to officials.
The Syrian News Agency said security forces had arrested two armed groups that opened fire and attacked citizens in a Damascus suburb. It did not say how many people were detained.
Ethnic Kurds, who complain of discrimination and make up 10-15 per cent of Syria's population of 20 million, mounted violent demonstrations against the state in 2004 that resulted in scores of deaths.
Mr Assad yesterday formed a panel to "solve the problem of the 1962 census" in the eastern region of al-Hasaka. The census resulted in 150,000 Kurds who now live in Syria being denied nationality.
Western powers have largely muted kept their criticism of Syria, which they have been trying to coax out of its anti-Israeli alliance with Iran and support for militant movements Hizbullah and Hamas.
Before today's protests, British foreign secretary William Hague called for restraint from the Syrian security forces.
"I believe it is important for the Syrian government to address the legitimate demands of the Syrian people. I call for serious political reforms to be brought forward and implemented without delay," he said yesterday.
The United States, which has criticised Mr Assad's speech for lacking substance, advised its citizens to put off non-essential travel to Syria and urged those in the country to consider leaving because of the unrest.
Reuters