The Syrian foreign ministry said Friday that Damascus was still mulling a response it had received from the Arab League to its request for lifting the Arab sanctions as a precondition for allowing foreign observers to enter the country to assess the situation on the ground.

“The foreign ministry has received the response of the secretary general (Nabil al-Arabi) and it is still under scrutiny,” ministry spokesman Jihad Maqdesi said in a statement.

Syrians took to the streets of Homs where at least 10 people were killed on Friday, activists said, as the opposition warned of the danger of a "massacre" by regime forces ringing the protest hub.

Four children were among 24 people killed when security forces and pro-regime militias opened fire in several cities across the country after the main weekly Muslim prayers, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Friday called on the Druze of Syria not to engage in the repression of anti-regime protests, stressing that engaging the Druze in the “acts of killing” is a “historic mistake.”

In an interview with the London-based, pan-Arab weekly The Majalla, Jumblat said: “In addition to the (predominantly Druze) region of Jabal al-Arab, there is another bleeding region in Syria, the region of Daraa, and the Druze should not engage in a Syrian axis that is against the (Sunni) majority.”

Turkey urged Syrian President Bashar Assad on Friday to punish the "murderers" of anti-regime protesters and accept observers proposed by the Arab League.

"If he (Assad) is now sincere, he will immediately punish the murderers and accept Arab League observers. He still has such an opportunity," Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters.

Foreign Minister Alain Juppe condemned Friday's bomb attack on a U.N. peacekeeping patrol in Lebanon in which five French troops were wounded, saying France would not be intimidated by such "vile acts.”

"I condemn in the strongest terms the cowardly attack that was carried out against UNIFIL this morning," Juppe added in a statement.

March 14 opposition MP Marwan Hamadeh blamed Damascus for Friday's attack on a UNIFIL patrol in the southern city of Tyre, saying it was orchestrated with the help of its ally Hizbullah.

"It is clear that Syria was behind what happened today and the messenger was Hizbullah," Hamadeh told Agence France Presse. "Nothing happens in that region without Hizbullah's approval."

A Syrian blogger who said he was tortured for expressing his opinions called on world governments Friday to step up the fight for Internet freedom, saying it makes everyone a reporter.

Access to social media has helped to expose the violent crackdown on dissent in Syria, Amjad Baiazy told a conference hosted by Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal in The Hague.

Syria's opposition warned Friday of a looming "massacre" as it reported thousands of regime forces and militiamen encircled the protest hub of Homs for an expected final assault to crush dissent.

The Syrian National Council issued the alert ahead of nationwide protests following the main weekly Muslim prayers called for in support of a campaign of escalating strikes starting on Sunday.

Speaker Nabih Berri and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, who was on a two-day official visit to Beirut, have reportedly disagreed on the situation in Syria as the top diplomat sought to garner Lebanese support against the Assad regime.

Sources close to Berri told An Nahar daily published Friday that the Syrian crisis was at the helm of Feltman’s discussions with Lebanese officials.

Lebanese Democratic Party leader MP Talal Arslan, accompanied by a religious Druze delegation, on Thursday held talks in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Addressing the Lebanese delegation, Assad said that “Syria is strong thanks to its people and the support of the brotherly and friendly people,” according to Syria’s state news agency SANA, stressing that “Syria is capable of overcoming the current events and that it won't ever give up its stances, principles and sovereignty whatever the pressures may be.”