The Lede: Latest Updates From the Region

On Friday, The Lede compiled reports on the war in Libya and protests in Syria and across the Middle East from journalists, bloggers and witnesses in the region. The coverage continues on nytimes.com.

In addition to documenting in graphic detail what appear to be bullet wounds to several protesters who were injured or killed on Friday, Syrian activists also posted clip after clip online showing shots being fired at demonstrators across Syria.

According to an activist who writes on Twitter as AnonymousSyria, this video shows that protesters in Azra in southwestern Syria were telling soldiers, “You’re our brothers,” when the soldiers opened fire on them:

In this two brief clips, an activist in Homs, Syria’s third-largest city, appears to push the digital zoom on his camera to its limit to capture images of armed members of the security forces in the distance:

This clip is said to show gunfire in Moadamia, a suburb of Damascus, the Syrian capital:

This video records gunshots in another suburb of the capital, Barzeh:

This video is said to show snipers on top of a tall building in the Zablatani district of Damascus, just before shots were fired at protesters:

This video, also said to have been filmed in Homs on Friday, appears to show evidence that shots were fired at an ambulance:

This video is said to have been filmed in Bayda, outside the coastal city of Baniyas:

The Lede will return to continue covering the protests in Syria in the days ahead. In the meantime, please visit the home page of NYTimes.com to read reports from our colleagues in the region.

In a bulletin on what it called protests attended by “limited numbers of demonstrators,” Syria’s state-run SANA news agency failed to report that any protesters were killed by the security forces on Friday.

Instead, the news agency reported that “armed groups” had attacked the security forces in several of the locations where activists and protesters said that they had been fired on by police officers and militia members.

In another report, SANA downplayed the size and number of the demonstrations, and encouraged protest organizers to obtain permits from the interior ministry in the future.

Here is the complete text of SANA’s report on the protests:

Despite the wide incitement campaign against Syria and the instigation by foreign media and direct calls for organizing protests with defining the places of gatherings and even the slogans, limited numbers of demonstrators took to the streets in a number of Syrian provinces.

SANA correspondents said the numbers of demonstrators varied from a city to another. Limited gatherings were reported after Friday prayers in Damascus countryside, Hama, Deir Ezzour, al-Hasaka and Baniyas, chanting slogans for freedom and martyrs.

Also thousands chanted for freedom and martyrs in Daraa.

The correspondents indicated that the security forces and police maintained presence close to the demonstrations, partly interfering in Harasta and al-Hajar al-Aswad in Damascus countryside, Hama and al-Hasaka using hoses and tear gas to settle scuffles that erupted between demonstrators and citizens and to protect private properties.

SANA correspondents in Harasta and al-Hajar al-Aswad in Damascus countryside, Hama and al-Qamishli said injuries were sustained during confrontations, while some other demonstrations dispersed peacefully.

For its part, Interior Ministry called upon citizens to obtain a license before demonstration from the competent authorities in application to the law of peaceful demonstration which became in force in order to ensure the safety of the demonstrators and exercise this right in a civilized way that reflects the history and originality of our people.

This graphic video, said to have been filmed on Friday in Harasta, a Damascus suburb, shows what the Syrian government news agency describes as the security forces “partly interfering” with a protest – shooting at a group of men pointing mobile phone cameras at them, and inflicting a possible mortal wound on one of them:

As my colleague Anthony Shadid reports from Beirut, “Security forces in Syria fired live ammunition Friday to disperse thousands of demonstrators who took to the streets of Damascus’ outskirts and at least 20 other towns and cities after noon prayers, according to protesters, witnesses and accounts posted on social networking sites. At least 43 people were killed, they said, in the bloodiest day of the five-week-old Syrian uprising. ”

Activists have posted text accounts and dozens of video clips of the demonstrations and clashes online. Restrictions on independent reporting imposed by the Syrian government make it difficult to confirm these accounts, but several video clips uploaded to the Web on Friday appear to match the descriptions of protests by witnesses have given to The Times and other news organizations.

Among the clips, there is some extremely graphic video showing what activists describe as badly wounded or dead protesters.

This video, showing a blood-drenched Syrian flag and hat, was filmed in the city of Hama, according to the activists who posted it on Facebook and YouTube and asked if this represents the “reform” promised by Syria’s president:

This video is said to show a martyred protester carried from a car in Damascus:

Another, graphic, horrifying clip shows close-up images of a terrible head wound suffered by a child in Azra, about 20 miles from Dara’a, a poor town in southwestern Syria that helped unleash the uprising. A protester who gave his name as Abu Ahmad told my colleague in Beirut that about 3,000 people had marched toward the town square when they came under fire. He said he brought three of those killed to the mosque — one shot in the head, one in the chest and one in the back — the oldest of whom was 20.

The video is very hard to watch, but, like many other clips, appears to have been posted online by outraged protesters who insist on documenting the violence unleashed upon them by the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

In this clip, a man wounded at a protest in the Barzeh district of Damascus is carried away:

This video is said to show a large protest in Douma, a suburb of Damascus, the Syrian capital:

This video seems to have been filmed as the security forces fired at protesters and shows blood on the pavement and dead or wounded protesters being rushed from the scene as shots were fired:

According to the activist who writes as AnonymousSyria on Twitter, this very graphic video shows a protester who was hot in the thigh in Douma receiving medical care in a private home, “to avoid arrest in hospital.”

This clip is said to show that teargas was fired at the protesters in Douma:

This video is said to show protesters in a Damascus suburb, Daraya, hurling a teargas canister back at the security forces:

In two previous updates today, we embedded video activists said was filmed during demonstrations in Midan, a suburb of Damascus on Friday.

This video is said to have been filmed inside the Hassan mosque in Midan, as protesters chanted, “One! One! One! The people and Syria are one!”

This video is said to show the protesters spilling out of the mosque:

These three clips appear to have been filmed at a rally in Midan and show that teargas was fired at protesters by the security forces:

If any readers are familiar with this location, we would be glad to hear from you in the comment thread below.

This video is said to show protesters in Midan tearing down a poster of President Bashar al-Assad:

These clips are said to show the destruction of another icon of the Assad family dynasty, a statue of Bashar al-Assad’s late brother, Basil, being set on fire in eastern town of Deir al-Zor:

These three clips are said to have been filmed on Friday in Homs, Syria’s third-largest city, where there was a deadly security crackdown on protesters earlier this week:

Witnesses in Homs reported that at least two protesters had been killed as the security forces again opened fire on demonstrators there. This video, said to have been filmed in Homs on Friday, appears to record a barrage of shots being fired at protesters:

This video, sent to Al Jazeera and posted on the network’s Syria live blog, is also said to have been filmed in Homs on Friday as the security forces opened fire of protesters:

According to Al Jazeera, this graphic video was also filmed in Homs as the security forces shot at protesters:

In an earlier update, we posted video of shooting in the Damascus suburb of Qaboun. This video is said to show protesters marching there on Friday:

This video is one of several clips said to have been filmed in Al Tal, outside Damascus, on Friday:

This video is said to have been filmed during a protest in Telkalakh, close to the Lebanese border, between Homs and Tartous:

Protests were also reported in Qamishli, a Kurdish city in eastern Syria. This video is said to have been filmed there on Friday:

According to the activist who uploaded it, this long clip shows a new protest in Dara’a on Friday:

Associated Press video of rebel fighters in the besieged Libyan city of Misurata.

As my colleague David Kirkpatrick reported, a spokesman for the Libyan rebels in Misurata said on Thursday that they had made gains against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s forces there. Among other advances, the spokesman said the rebels had taken control of a tall office building government snipers had been using to fire at civilians along the besieged city’s central Tripoli Avenue.

This video, uploaded to YouTube by Libyan activists, appears to show rebels celebrating the capture of that building on Thursday:

Xan Rice, a Guardian correspondent in Misurata, visited the office building on Friday. He reported, in a phone call embedded on the newspaper’s live blog, that the government snipers had left behind thousands of spent bullet shells and empty mortar casings, uniforms and, “some graffiti on the wall, where they said they would never forgive the people of Misurata and would … come back to get them, to punish them.”

More video, uploaded late Thursday night, shows the rebels combing a part of the city center after the battle:

This video, also posted on YouTube on Thursday, appears to give a close look at some of the rebels in Misurata firing rockets at the government forces:

As my colleague Anthony Shadid reports, despite increased security, several thousand protesters demonstrated in cities across Syria on Friday, including Damascus, Baniyas, Qamishli and Hama.

Wissam Tarif, a Damascus-based human rights advocate, uploaded this video of protesters chanting, “The People Want to Topple the Regime!” in Zabadani, a suburb of the Syrian capital, to YouTube:

Activists said that this video was filmed in Qaboun, a suburb of Damascus, on Friday and shows protesters dodging bullets as they attempted to retrieve the body of “the first martyr,” killed by the security forces:

The Syrian activist who uploaded this video said that it was filmed in Baniyas, a coastal city where protesters have been killed in recent weeks, on Friday:

This video, of protesters denying accusations that they have sectarian aims by chanting for unity “One! One! One! The people and Syria are one!” is said to have been shot on Friday in Tartous, about 20 miles south of Baniyas:

Last week, protesters briefly blocked the highway between Baniyas and Tartous and engaged in a tense standoff with the security forces.

According to an activist who writes as FreedominSyria on Twitter, this video, said to have been filmed during demonstrations in Midan, a suburb of Damascus on Friday, shows protesters chanting “Zenga, Zenga, Dar, Dar, we will overthrow you Bashar!”

The phrase “zenga, zenga, dar, dar,” which means, “alley by alley, house by house,” has been borrowed and adapted by protesters in Syria from a warning to protesters issued in a speech by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in February, which went viral when it was autotuned, remixed and set to music by an Israeli blogger:

This video, uploaded to YouTube a short time ago, is also said to show Friday’s protest in Midan:

Syrian security forces have fired at protesters on the streets of a suburb of the Syrian capital, Damascus, Reuters reports.

A witness in the suburb, Douma, told the news agency that thousands of protesters took to the streets and were met with live rounds that injured at least three people. “I helped carry three people the bullets hit in the leg,” the witness said.

Wissam Tarif, a Damascus-based human right advocate, also reported the shooting in Douma on Twitter. Minutes ago he said that that one person had been killed in Homs, Syria’s third-largest city.

This video, of protesters chanting, “The People Want to Topple the Regime!” was uploaded to YouTube about an hour ago by an activist who said it was filmed in Homs on Friday:

Mr. Tarif also said that there have been protests in another Damascus suburb, Midan. This video, posted on the SyriaisFree1 YouTube channel within the past hour, is said to have been filmed in Midan, as protesters echoed the call for an end to President Bashar al-Assad’s rule:

According to a Syrian blogger who writes as Razaniyat, this video shows protesters in another Damascus suburb, Daraya, destroying a statue of Hafez al-Assad, the late president who passed on his office to his son, Bashar.

A Syrian student who blogs as Seleucid joked on Twitter: