Thousands of protesters took to the streets in cities around Syria after prayers on Friday to chants of “We want freedom” and security forces responded with tear gas, electrified batons, clubs and bullets, activists and residents said in telephone interviews.

Two activists said security forces had clashed with more than 1,000 protesters in the city of Douma, near the capital, beating them and attacking with the batons before opening fire. At least one person was killed and six others wounded, the activists said. Reuters reported at least three dead.

“It is crazy, nonstop,” one activist, who asked not to be named because of safety fears, said of the shooting. The type of ammunition used could not be immediately determined.

In the capital, Damascus, witnesses said thousands had gathered for the second week in a row at Al Rifai mosque and were met there by security forces and plain-clothed government supporters who barricaded them inside, beating those who tried to leave. Inside the mosque protesters sang the national anthem while outside the air rang with pro-government chants to “cover up the sounds of beating and hitting as they are trying to break into the mosque,” said one activist, who asked not to be named.

According to The New York Times news,The protests, organized via social networking sites and using Friday prayers as a meeting point, appeared to pose a critical test of the strength of the movement, which in a little more than two weeks has presented an unprecedented challenge to the four-decade iron rule of President Bashar al-Assad and his family.

National unity emerged as a significant theme in Friday’s protests, with demonstrators appealing to the Syrian people just days after Mr. Assad used a major address from the floor of Parliament to accuse demonstrators of being “duped” by foreign conspirators bent on the destruction of the country.

After his speech the government announced on Thursday that it was creating committees to address the protesters’ concerns but failed to promise immediate action and the move appeared unlikely to quell the rising tide of unrest.

Security forces used tear gas on Friday to disperse protesters in the southern city of Dara’a, where the unrest began two weeks ago, residents said, and there were protests in at least five cities in the Kurdish north. Fouad Aleiku, a leading member of the Kurdish Yakipi Party, said in a telephone interview that more than 2,000 demonstrators had taken to the streets in the town of Qamashli.

In Dara’a, Ahmed Al Sayasna, the imam who led Friday prayers at the city’s central mosque, said he had delivered a sermon that “stood with the demands of the people.”

“I told the people that they should be happy because Dara’a is the home of martyrs,” Mr. Sayasna said. “We have a history of demanding freedom and of martyrdom.”

Tension mounted in Dara’a on Friday as security forces deployed in large numbers, and military units manned checkpoints ringing the city, Mr. Sayasna said.

Last week security forces killed five or six protesters outside of Al Omari mosque when they tried to disperse a crowd using live ammunition and tear gas. Activists from Syrian Human Rights Information Link say 73 people have been killed by security forces in the city since the protests began.

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