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.

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.

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.

Yemeni tribesmen have killed two suspected al-Qaida militants in the restive southern province of Abyan, a tribal source said on Friday.

"Our armed men killed al-Qaida fighters Abdullah Umeir and Shokri Shaher as they tried to infiltrate Mudia," a town in the province held by tribesmen, late on Thursday, the source told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

Jordan, the custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, warned Israel on Friday against closing a wooden access ramp to the sensitive al-Aqsa mosque compound in the Old City.

"Jordan rejects any Israeli attempt to affect Jerusalem's holy sites, identity and heritage, including al-Moughrabi Gate" that leads to the compound's al-Buraq Wall, known to Jews as the Western Wall, Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said.

An Israeli air strike killed a Gaza civilian and wounded 12 others, including seven children, when it hit a home next to a militant training ground, medics said on Friday.

The Israeli army expressed regret that civilians were hurt but blamed Gaza's Hamas rulers for operating within residential areas.

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.

Egypt's biggest political group the Muslim Brotherhood clashed with the country's army leaders on Thursday, accusing them of trying to "marginalize" parliament over the writing of a new constitution.

Mohammed el-Baltagui, one of the leaders of the Brotherhood's political party, said the movement had pulled out of a contact group with the army leaders who have been in power since the toppling of Hosni Mubarak in February.

Embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “will not escape justice,” the French foreign ministry stressed Thursday.

“France does not give any credibility to Bashar al-Assad’s provocative statements, which totally contradict with the fact that acts of repression and violence against the Syrian people have continued unabated,” ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told reporters, referring to Assad’s recent interview with ABC News.