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Afterwards, tanks encircled the town before entering it, the source added.
In the central city of Homs, meanwhile, there were clashes between pro- and anti-regime groups, an Observatory source said.
Last week, three anti-regime people there were kidnapped, and their dismembered corpses were returned to their families on Saturday.
"Residents panicked and regime partisans sacked several shops in the area," the source said, adding that security forces stood by without doing anything.
Activists said that at least 28 civilians were killed, including 16 in Damascus, in demonstrations across the country on Friday.
Videos posted on the Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook page, a driving force behind the anti-regime protests, showed huge crowds attending the funerals of protesters killed on Friday.
One showed mourners chanting anti-regime slogans in the Damascus district of Qabun, while others showed mourners at funerals in the Barzeh and Rukn Eddin districts.
Activists said security forces also arrested almost 300 people in a clampdown on the largest anti-regime rallies in four months that saw more than a million people take to the streets in the cities of Hama and Deir Ezzor.
Since the protests began on March 15, violence has killed more than 1,400 civilians and upwards of 350 members of the security forces, while more than 1,300 people have been arrested, according to the Syrian Observatory.
Meanwhile, artists and intellectuals arrested during anti-regime protests were freed on Saturday, another rights activist said.
"The Syrian authorities on Saturday freed all the intellectuals and artists who were arrested on Thursday for protesting against the regime," Abdel Karim Rihawi, head of the Syrian League for the Defence of Human Rights, told AFP.
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In the central city of Homs, meanwhile, there were clashes between pro- and anti-regime groups, an Observatory source said.
Last week, three anti-regime people there were kidnapped, and their dismembered corpses were returned to their families on Saturday.
"Residents panicked and regime partisans sacked several shops in the area," the source said, adding that security forces stood by without doing anything.
Activists said that at least 28 civilians were killed, including 16 in Damascus, in demonstrations across the country on Friday.
Videos posted on the Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook page, a driving force behind the anti-regime protests, showed huge crowds attending the funerals of protesters killed on Friday.
One showed mourners chanting anti-regime slogans in the Damascus district of Qabun, while others showed mourners at funerals in the Barzeh and Rukn Eddin districts.
Activists said security forces also arrested almost 300 people in a clampdown on the largest anti-regime rallies in four months that saw more than a million people take to the streets in the cities of Hama and Deir Ezzor.
Since the protests began on March 15, violence has killed more than 1,400 civilians and upwards of 350 members of the security forces, while more than 1,300 people have been arrested, according to the Syrian Observatory.
Meanwhile, artists and intellectuals arrested during anti-regime protests were freed on Saturday, another rights activist said.
"The Syrian authorities on Saturday freed all the intellectuals and artists who were arrested on Thursday for protesting against the regime," Abdel Karim Rihawi, head of the Syrian League for the Defence of Human Rights, told AFP.
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