Voters turned out in low numbers for a second round of by-elections in Bahrain on Saturday boycotted by the Gulf state's Shiite opposition, witnesses said.

The elections were held to replace 18 MPs of the main Shiite opposition formation Al-Wefaq, who resigned in February shortly after Shiite-led protests sparked a deadly response from authorities in the Sunni-ruled kingdom.

The United States said Friday it summoned the Syrian ambassador to Washington to read him "the riot act" after President Bashar al-Assad's supporters tried to attack the U.S. envoy in Damascus.

European nations on Friday dropped the word "sanctions" from a proposed U.N. Council resolution on Syria as they played a diplomatic word game to temper Russian opposition.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to demand a quick return to peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, her spokesman said Friday.

Twenty-seven people have been killed on Friday at the hands of Syrian security forces during anti-regime demonstrations that took place in various Syrian cities, according to activists.

The Syrian Revolution General Commission said that 27 people were killed and tens were wounded in the crackdown against protestors.

Protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square declared a sit-in on Friday following a rally to reclaim the revolution amid anger over the military rulers' handling of the transition.

An international commission of inquiry into rights violations in Syria said on Friday it hoped to be allowed to visit the country, although it had not yet been in contact with Syrian authorities.

"Our hope is that the Syrian Arab Republic will cooperate and give us access to different authorities, and visit different locations," Sergio Pinheiro, the head of the international commission of inquiry on Syria told reporters.

A senior U.S. official confirmed Friday that U.S.-born al-Qaida cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi was dead, after the Yemeni defense ministry said he had been killed with several other suspected militants.

"I can confirm... he's dead," the senior administration official said when asked about the incident, without providing further details.

Two weeks after Egypt's uprising swept aside Hosni Mubarak, the presidents of Iran and Syria stood side by side in Damascus in a blunt message to the Arab Spring: The Syrian regime can count on its allies in Tehran.

Seven months later — and after at least 2,700 deaths in Syria — Iran is tweaking its big brother role for Syrian President Bashar Assad. The Iranian leaders are now urging him to consider talks with protesters or risk heading down a path with few escape routes.

Syrian security forces killed a civilian in the flashpoint central city of Homs on Friday, adding to six killed in the province the previous evening, two of them children, activists said.

The civilian was killed in the city's al-Khalidiya neighborhood, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.