14 Killed as Syrians Rally to Protest 'Protocol of Death'

Syrian security forces on Friday killed at least 14 civilians, a human rights group said, as protesters took to the streets across the country under the slogan "Protocol of death, a license to kill," in reference to the protocol recently signed between Syria and the Arab League on sending observers to the country.

Three people were killed in Daraa province, south of the capital, cradle of the protest movement against President Bashar al-Assad's regime, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement received by Agence France Presse.

Six more were killed in the flashpoint central city of Homs and three in the eastern oil province of Deir al-Zour, the Britain-based watchdog said.

The Observatory released a grisly video to back its claim that security forces committed a massacre Tuesday in the town of Kafer Awid in Idlib province in the northwest, close to the border with Turkey.

The video zooms in on the faces of at least 49 men, some of them completely disfigured, before panning out to what appear to be rows of corpses.

The opposition Syrian National Council charged on Wednesday that regime forces had killed 250 people in 48 hours in the run-up to the arrival on Thursday of an advance team of observers under a deal signed between Syria and the Arab League to end months of bloodshed.

In Berlin, the foreign ministry said it had summoned Syria's ambassador to demand an immediate halt to the "brutal" repression against demonstrators.

An Arab League advance team arrived in Syria Thursday to oversee a plan to end nine months of bloodshed.

But using the slogan "Protocol of death, a license to kill", activists called on Facebook for nationwide protests against the mission.

Opposition leaders have charged that Syria's agreement to the mission was a mere "ploy" to head off a threat by the Arab League to go to the U.N. Security Council.

"We call on the Arab League to refer the matter of the crisis in Syria to the U.N. Security Council," said Omar Edelbi, spokesman for the Local Coordination Committees, which have been driving the protests on the ground.

He called the observer mission "another attempt by the regime to bypass the Arab initiative and empty it of its contents".

The observer mission is part of an Arab plan endorsed by Syria on November 2 that also calls for the withdrawal of the military from towns and residential districts, a halt to the violence and the release of detainees.

The advance team consists of a dozen security, legal and administrative staff from the Arab League's secretariat, who will make the logistical preparations for the arrival on Sunday of an initial 30 observers.

The mission's leader, veteran Sudanese military intelligence officer General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi, said its numbers would swell to a total of between 150 and 200 in the following days.

Their task will be to monitor the "cessation of violence on all sides, and to ensure the release of detainees arrested in connection with the current crisis," according to the text of the protocol.

The Enough Project, a non-governmental organization, on Thursday condemned the fact that the mission is headed by a general it said was in charge of the Sudanese intelligence agency when "genocide" was committed in Darfur.

Foreign Minister Walid Muallem has said he expects the observers to vindicate Damascus' claims that the unrest has been caused by "armed terrorist groups," not peaceful protesters as maintained by Western governments and human rights watchdogs.

Muallem has said the observers will be able to access so-called "hot zones" but not sensitive military sites. Human Rights Watch called on Damascus to grant full access.

The United Nations estimates that more than 5,000 people have been killed in the regime's crackdown since mid-March.

In New York, France said "significant progress" had been made at a U.N. Security Council meeting on Syria.

There were tensions at the meeting, however, with Russia renewing demands for an inquiry into NATO airstrikes in Libya in a move U.S. ambassador Susan Rice called "a cheap stunt" to divert attention from the Syria crisis.

Russia and China have already vetoed one resolution proposed by European countries condemning Syria. Russia, which accuses the West of seeking regime change in Syria, last week proposed a new text that the European countries say is not tough enough on President Bashar al-Assad.

State news agency SANA claimed Thursday more than 2,000 members of the security forces had been killed since anti-government protests erupted in March.