Thousands of people opposed to President Bashar Assad protested in Syrian towns on Friday to urge the international community to act to halt the regime's bloody repression of their uprising.

Following a nationwide theme, protesters demanded justice for the victims of a regime crackdown in Daraya, a Damascus town where more than 500 people were reportedly killed in late August in the worst massacre of the uprising.

Russia on Friday blasted U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's call for an overhaul of the Syrian opposition and accused Washington of trying to solve the conflict on its own terms.

The Russian foreign ministry said Clinton's comments on the Syrian National Council (SNC) no longer representing the entire anti-regime movement clashed with the agreements world powers reached on the conflict in Geneva in June.

The widow and children of Salafist Mahmoud Abdelal, who blew himself up in Syria last month, were all ears as his proud but grieving mother described his commitment to jihad.

His story is particularly timely, given that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged the Syrian opposition on Wednesday to resist efforts by Islamist "extremists" to hijack the revolution to oust President Bashar Assad.

Syrian rebels have killed a Kurdish woman militia leader in the northern city of Aleppo, highlighting growing tensions between anti-regime fighters and the Kurds, a monitoring group said Friday.

"Shaha Ali Abdu, also known as Nujeen Dirik, was killed early on Friday. She headed a Kurdish popular defense unit that is part of the Democratic Union Party (PYD)," Syria's branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The main opposition Syrian National Council on Friday urged rebels be held accountable after a video purported to show opposition fighters executing Syrian soldiers.

"We urge the (rebel) Free Syrian Army and the revolutionary movement on the ground to hold to account anyone who violates human rights," SNC human rights committee head Radif Mustafa told Agence France Presse by telephone.

Munzir is still a teenager but he's already a veteran of the Syrian war. He fought in his hometown, driving out regime soldiers, and is now trying to do the same in Aleppo.

Except that winning Aazaz only took a couple of weeks.

Syrian main exiled opposition group on Friday accused Washington of undermining the country's revolution by seeking to overhaul how regime opponents are organized.

Two days ahead of key opposition talks due in Qatar, the Syrian National Council lashed out at U.S. criticism of the group for not being fully representative of Syria's diverse dissident groups.

Syrian rebels have taken full control of a strategic crossroads in the northwest that further limits the government's ability to reinforce its troops in the second city Aleppo, a watchdog said Friday.

Rebel fighters forced troops to pull back from their last position in the Saraqeb area where the main highways to Aleppo from Damascus and from the Mediterranean coast meet, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The main opposition Syrian National Council said on Thursday that it has received $40.4 million (31.1 million euros) in international aid since it was set up a year ago, half of which came from Libya.

Libya has contributed $20.4 million, followed by $15 million from Qatar and $5 million from the United Arab Emirates.

A car exploded outside a military barracks in a southern Turkish town near Syria Thursday, lightly injuring four people, in an attack blamed on Kurdish rebels, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The blast occurred around 5:15 pm local time in the Iskenderun district of Hatay province shortly after a military vehicle passed by, local governor Celalettin Lekesiz was quoted as telling Anatolia.