Syria blames opposition for violence

DAMASCUS, Syria, April 2 (UPI) -- The Syrian government said Saturday it was hunting gunmen responsible for violence Friday, while the opposition reported arrests.

The official Syrian Arab News Agency said Saturday security forces were seeking an unidentified "armed group" that killed "a number of citizens and security forces" in the Damascus suburb of Douma Friday, CNN reported.

SANA said the group's snipers fired at citizens and security forces from rooftops during a protest. But activists and witnesses told CNN it was government snipers that fired on unarmed protesters, while police beat them.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces in Daraa and Homs Saturday arrested about 20 people who had marched Friday.

At least 10 people were killed Friday, nine of them in Douma, human rights activists said.

Demonstrators demanding change also marched in Al Sanameen, Latakia, Baniyas and Kamishli.

Protest leaders had designated Friday as "Martyrs' Day," a response to President Bashar al-Assad's hard-line speech Wednesday in which he refused to lift the 48-year-old emergency law.

In Yemen Friday, rival rallies by supporters and opponents of President Ali Abdullah Saleh filled Sanaa after prayers. They were huge but peaceful, The Washington Post reported.

In Cairo, an estimated 50,000 rallied in Tahrir Square Friday to "rescue the revolution." They demanded the immediate trial of deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his associates, including Fathi Serour, the former speaker of Parliament; Zakariya Azmi, head of the presidential palace; and Safwat Sharif, the former secretary-general of Mubarak's National Democratic Party.

In Amman, Jordan, some 1,500 protesters gathered after Friday prayers to demand an end to corruption and greater freedom.