Anti-Assad protesters chant at funerals

DAMASCUS, Syria, April 18 (UPI) -- Thousands of Syrian activists protested during funerals in Homs Monday, calling for an end to President Bashar Assad's regime.

Video footage, apparently shot during and after the funerals, showed crowds of angry mourners chanting "The people want to topple the regime," The New York Times reported.

Security forces fired into a crowd of demonstrators during pro-democracy protests Sunday, activists said.

An opposition source told CNN Monday Syrian security forces had killed as many as 24 people in the previous two days, including some people attending a funeral in Talbisa Sunday, and wounded dozens more. Rights activist Wissam Tarif told the U.S. news network government forces raided people's homes and shot others in the street in the city.

The death toll included at least five -- and perhaps as many as 11 -- in Talbisa, five in Latakia and eight in Homs, CNN said.

Syrian state-run news agency SANA reported Monday one police officer died and 11 police and security personnel were injured Sunday.

The shootings ended a day in which thousands of people marched in cities and towns across the country, calling for an end to Assad's autocratic rule -- a day after he vowed to lift emergency laws that have been in place for nearly a half-century, The Washington Post reported.

Tarif said on his Twitter page, "The protest taking place now in Homs is one of the biggest Syria [has] witnessed so far."

Security forces opened fire in two areas of Homs without warning, Razan Zeitouneh, a human rights activist and lawyer who talked to witnesses, told the Post.

"The army suddenly started to shoot the people," she said. "There was no use of fire or anything by the people. We talked to many eyewitnesses, and they were peaceful protests."

Witnesses said protesters were fired upon after trying to take over a main square.

"First, security shot in the air," Tarif told the Post, "Then snipers took out people from a distance. Security used electrifying tools, sticks and [beat] people with rifles on the head."

Tarif said his organization confirmed 86 arrests. He said he expected the number of detainees to be in the hundreds.

Demonstrations also took place in Aleppo, Daraa and Baniyas.

The demonstrations occurred despite Assad's promise Saturday that new statutes would replace emergency laws in his latest move to diffuse the crisis. On Thursday, he appointed a new Cabinet and released hundreds of people detained without charges.