More than 50 dead, Syria activists warn of 'abyss'

Syrian security forces killed more than 50 people in the largest anti-regime protests to date, rights activists said on Saturday, as the Internet that has acted as an engine of the revolt was restored.

"Syria is sliding down a tunnel. We are at the edge of the abyss," warned Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, who said "angry" funerals were being held for 48 shot dead on Friday in Hama, north of Damascus.

His London-based group said security forces sprayed with gunfire a crowd of more than 50,000 which had gathered for the biggest rally in the city since the mid-March outbreak across Syria of a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.

In Homs, which like Hama is located in central Syria, two people were killed the same day and another two in nearby Rastan, said Abdel Rahman, while one person was killed in Idleb, northwest Syria.

On Saturday, Internet services were restored across Syria after a cut of more than 24 hours in several regions, residents said. Damascus and the coastal resort of Latakia were among the worst affected cities.

Two-thirds of networks in Syria, where activists have used Facebook to coordinate the revolt, were cut off from the Internet on Friday, according to a US-based Internet monitoring firm, Renesys.

Syria's official press, in its account of Friday's violence, said 20 people were killed, including police, security agents and civilians "by shots fired by armed groups."

In Hama, three "saboteurs" were killed in clashes with police as they set ablaze a government building, state television said, adding that 80 security force members were injured.

On the international front, Britain condemned the killings.

"The Syrian government has shown an abhorrent disregard for human life as ordinary Syrians took to the streets today in memory of the innocent children who have died during the unrest," said Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt.

Activists called the protests over the dozens of children killed in anti-government protests such as 13-year-old Hamza al-Khatib whom activists say was tortured to death, a charge denied by the authorities.

Rights groups say more than 1,100 civilians have been killed and at least 10,000 arrested in the brutal crackdown since the protests began in mid-March.

The Observatory's Abdel Rahman, meanwhile, said 60 people were detained on Friday during a demonstration in the Mediterranean city of Banias.

But among hundreds released since Assad announced a general amnesty on Tuesday, opposition figure and writer Ali Abdullah, 61, walked free on Saturday, the Observatory said.

It said also released during the week were lawyer Muhannad al-Hasni, the head of an unlicenced rights group, and opposition figure Meshaal al-Tamo, leader of a banned Kurdish party.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday expressed alarm at the heightened Syrian government crackdown.

He was "alarmed at the escalation of violence in Syria, which has reportedly left at least 70 killed over the past week alone, bringing the total casualties since mid-March to over 1,000 dead," a spokeswoman said.

The government insists the unrest is the work of "armed terrorist gangs" backed by Islamists and foreign agitators.