Underground Syrian activists have been carrying out night-time acts of defiance in the capital Damascus where the security forces of President Bashar al-Assad keep a tight grip, dpa reported.
An activist in neighbouring Lebanon said anti-government activists had recently hung an effigy of al-Assad from a bridge in Damascus alongside a banner reading, "You will be hanged by the people." Others sprayed anti-government slogans across the city.
Activists also threw red paint in a main square in Damascus and dropped fliers reading, "This is the blood of the people that Bashar al-Assad is killing in Homs."
The Syrian army killed five people on Friday in the flashpoint city of Homs, where soldiers fired shells on residential neighbourhoods.
The United Nations estimates that some 3,000 people have been killed since protests calling for the end of al-Assad's regime began in mid-March.
The Beirut-based activist said the clandestine acts of defiance in Damascus were meant to send a message to the Syrian regime that the opposition was also active in the capital.
Footage posted on YouTube Friday showed dozens of demonstrators, some of them masked, allegedly marching through the Midan area of Damascus.