BEIRUT —Two weeks into a cease-fire agreement, there still was no peace in Syria: Security agents in Damascus collected the remains of 10 people killed in a suicide bombing. Activists reported troops firing on protesters. Video showed a crowd carrying a slain boy to U.N. observers as proof of regime violence.
The head of the United Nations said that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s continued crackdown on protests has reached an “intolerable stage” and that the U.N. will try to speed up the deployment of up to 300 monitors to Syria. Only 15 are there now.
“The government of Syria must live up to its promises to the world,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said Friday.
Tens of thousands of people poured into the streets across Syria for anti-regime marches after Muslim noon prayers Friday. Amateur video from the central city of Homs, where the presence of U.N. observers helped halt weeks of artillery attacks, showed rows of men lining up in a main street, holding one another by the shoulders as they sang and danced.
Troops have routinely opened fire on protests since the uprising against Assad began 13 months ago, but there appeared to be fewer violent incidents Friday than in previous weeks.
Still, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said five protesters were killed by fire from the security forces, including a 10-year-old boy.
The suicide bomber in Damascus detonated an explosives belt Friday near members of the security forces, killing at least nine people and wounding 26, the state-run news agency SANA reported. The remains of two other people also were found, one thought to be the bomber and the other a victim, according to Health Minister Nader al-Halqi. The minister said seven police were among the dead.
