Syrians Rally, Saying Assad Is Next

Bolstered by scenes of jubilation in Libya, protesters in Syria and Yemen streamed out to rally against their longtime leaders Friday, warning their presidents to take a cue from Moammar Gadhafi's violent death. Official reactions were muted in the region. Arab media marked the death of Libya's 42-year autocrat as a remarkable victory for pro-democracy protesters in the Middle East.

In an image from an amateur video from Idlib, Syria, ralliers' signs call Libyan events 'a victory for all Arabs.' "He will be remembered in history as the chancellor of all tyrants," an editorial in the pan-Arab newspaper Al Hayat said. Lebanese daily An-Nahar said the event "takes the Arab Spring revolutions to a new turn, folding a painful page."  In Syria, ralliers congratulated Libyans in large protests across the country after the Friday noontime prayers.

Residents said the government moved military and security reinforcements to the central city of Homs, where defected soldiers have been fighting against regime forces. At least 24 people were killed in protests across the country—19 of them in Homs—according to the Local Coordination Committees, a network of Syrian activists coordinating and documenting protests. While Friday's toll was in line with those of days earlier this week, activists said they worried Gadhafi's killing would harden the regime's crackdown.

Syria's uprising has emerged as one of the most complicated among this year's Arab protests. Demonstrations—spread across the country but only sporadically touching Syria's two largest cities—have remained largely peaceful for seven months. But violence against government forces has surged in recent months, both as a military crackdown on protests has escalated, spurring civilians to try to protect themselves, and as an international deadlock over the crisis has frustrated protesters.

"This third great victory for the Arab Revolutions sends a critical message to the region, the people suffering under other tyrants and the world at large," the Local Coordination Committees said in a congratulatory statement to Libyans on Friday. "There is no turning back from the demands for freedom."

Thousands of people also marched in Yemen, hours before the United Nations Security Council condemned the human-rights abuses and killings by authorities there and approved a resolution supporting a plan for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to transfer power. Mr. Saleh, who has ruled for 33 years, has refused to step down despite months of protests and several attempts drawn up by Gulf states to broker a peaceful transfer of power.

"What we have seen across the Arab world with Tunis, Egypt and Libya has been soft, medium and then hard," said Mohammed Abulahoum, a Yemeni opposition leader and president of the Justice and Building party. "It is a chance for the remaining leaders to have some sort of managed exit and not lead the country to more violence."

Some protesters in Syria, in their eight month of protests, were less compromising.

"We were very happy with the killing of Gadhafi," said Raman Kanjo, an activist who said he recently snuck back into the country, having fled months ago to Turkey and then Lebanon after security forces raided his family home. "He should also be dragged through the streets," he said, referring to President Bashar al-Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for four decades.

Mr. Kanjo, interviewed by telephone as he marched in the city of Qusair in the Homs province , spoke over the sound of a chanting crowd. He said Gadhafi's death should be serve as a warning to all Arab leaders. "It's a message the Syrian president in specific should heed soon, because he' s digging his own grave," he said.

As U.N. action over Syria remains blocked, a committee from the Arab League is expected to visit Damascus next week to begin brokering talks between Mr. Assad's government and the opposition, which most opposition groups have rejected.

Rising calls among protesters for international intervention to protect civilians, along the lines of the U.N.-mandated North Atlantic Treaty Organization campaign in Libya, have sharpened divisions in Syria both between government loyalists and opponents, and within the opposition. Syrians, with Iraq to their east, have long been wary of Western powers.

"I worry that the killing of Gadhafi will make foreign military intervention seem like a good idea," said Louay Hussain, a writer and leading opposition figure in Damascus.

Wary of rising violence within a protest movement they have labored to keep peaceful, many Syrian activists marked Gadhafi's killing with a message of their commitment to nonviolence. "We call upon all Libyans and dissidents to value justice and accountability over revenge and retaliation," the activists' statement said.

Syria's government continued to warn that armed terrorist groups were seeking to destabilize the country. In comments carried by the state news agency, Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said the groups—which Syria has broadly blamed for the unrest this year—"are funded by similar organizations from neighboring countries."

"Syrian state media is trying to present a narrative that the Arab uprisings are not good," said dissident writer Mr. Hussain. "That Gadhafi was killed after he was captured and that there therefore those people were killers and savages."