The presence of Arab League monitors in Syria has re-energised the anti-government protest movement, with tens of thousands turning out over the past three days in cities and neighbourhoods where the observers are expected to visit.
The huge rallies have been met by lethal gunfire from security forces apparently worried about multiple mass sit-ins modelled after Cairo's Tahrir Square.
Yesterday, security forces opened fire on tens of thousands protesting outside a mosque in a Damascus suburb and killed at least four people.
The crowd had gathered at the mosque near to a municipal building where cars of the monitors had been spotted outside.
Troops fired live ammunition and tear gas to disperse large protests in several areas of the country, including central Damascus, killing at least 26 people nationwide, activists said.
A key activist network, the Local Co-ordination Committees, said it has documented the names of 130 people, including six children, who died since the Arab League monitors arrived in Syria on Monday night.
The ongoing violence, and new questions about the human rights record of the head of the Arab League monitors, are reinforcing the opposition's view that Syria's limited cooperation with the observers is nothing more than a farce for President Bashar Assad's regime to buy time and forestall more international condemnation and sanctions.
Still, the presence of outside monitors has invigorated frustrated protesters and motivated them to take to the streets again in large numbers after months of demonstrations met by bullets had dashed their hopes of peaceful change.
"We know the observers won't do anything to help us," said Yahya Abdel-Bari, an activist in the Damascus suburb of Douma.
"But still, we want to show them our numbers, to let them know what is really happening here," he said.
The 60 Arab League monitors, who began work on Tuesday, are the first Syria has allowed in during the nine-month anti-government uprising.
They are supposed to ensure the regime complies with terms of the Arab League plan to end Assad's crackdown on dissent. The UN says more than 5,000 people have died in the uprising since March.
The plan, which Syria agreed to on December 19, demands that the government removes its security forces and heavy weapons from cities, starts talks with the opposition and allows human rights workers and journalists into the country. It also calls for the release of all political prisoners.