Damascus: Syria's second city Aleppo braced for a mass rally on Thursday after activists called on protesters to "light the spark of the revolution" against President Bashar Al Assad's regime.
Protests have been largely muted in Aleppo but a Facebook group that has been a motor of the uprising has called on Syrians to mobilise across the country and march on the commercial hub of Aleppo to demand the regime's downfall.
The Syrian Revolution 2011 group also urged people to rally after weekly Muslim prayers on Friday, branding July 1 "the Friday of departure" and saying in a message to Assad: "We don't love you... Go away, you and your party."
Troops meanwhile pressed on with a campaign to quash dissent in northwestern villages, killing more civilians, despite international condemnation and new US sanctions against key regime pillars and Syria's top ally Iran.
11 civilians killed by soldiers
Eleven people were shot dead Wednesday when soldiers backed by tanks and armoured personnel carriers swept into villages in the northwestern province of Idleb, said the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The group's chief Rami Abdul Rahman, speaking to AFP in Nicosia, provided a list of names of 10 people killed in several villages within the district of Jabal Al Zawiyah, including Mar-Ayan, Al Rami, Sarja and Kafr Haya.
The troops stormed Mar-Ayan and Ihsem villages on Wednesday, a day after tanks rumbled into Al Rami, near the main road leading to Aleppo, activists had said, adding at least seven people were killed in the operations.
Searches
"They are currently at the outskirts of Al Bara," a hamlet known for its Roman remains, Abdul Rahman said on Wednesday. "The soldiers are deployed in the villages and are conducting searches."
The Observatory says 1,353 civilians have been killed since mid-March in a crackdown by President Bashar al-Assad's regime on the reformist movement and that 343 security force personnel have also died.
The crackdown has also seen thousands of Syrians arrested since mid-March when pro-democracy protests erupted against Assad's rule and almost 50 years of iron-fisted rule by the Baath party.
"The Aleppo Volcano. The people want the fall of the regime," pro-democracy activists said in a message posted on Facebook.
'Light the spark'
"Revolutionaries, come to Aleppo and Idleb provinces... and go to central Aleppo... to protest and to light the spark of the Revolution," said the message.
On Wednesday some 300 lawyers staged a sit-in at Aleppo's courthouse chanting pro-democracy slogans, while regime loyalists organised a counterprotest nearby.
The Syrian Revolution 2011 also urged protesters to rally against the regime on Friday - the weekly day of rest which has been a focal time of demonstrations.
"We don't love you. We Don't love you. Go away, you and your party," said the message on Facebook, clearly addressing Assad.
Deadly crackdown
Calls for his departure have also emerged in the West, where the deadly crackdown against protesters seeking reform in Syria has been widely condemned and met with a series of sanctions.
On Wednesday the US Treasury issued a new list, targeting Syria's Political Security Directorate and air force intelligence chief Major General Jamil Hassan.
Iran's police force was also sanctioned "for providing support to the Syrian regime," a statement in Washington said, about a week after the European Union slapped penalties on the Islamic republic for involvement in the crackdown.
Tehran has denied any involvement in Syria.
The embattled Syrian president and six top aides have already been sanctioned by Washington and Assad is also on a list of 23 figures hit by an assets freeze and an EU travel ban.
