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“There are letters still being exchanged between the Arab League and Damascus to reach a vision for the protocol…. These communications and correspondence are being studied by Damascus,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad al-Makdesi said in the Syrian capital.

Assad has so far shown no sign of halting the crackdown on protests against his rule.

In Homs’s Sunni district of Bab Amro Sunday, several thousand people encircled the coffin of Khaled al-Sheikh, a 19-year-old protester who residents said was killed in random shooting by the army on the neighborhood this week.

Abdelbassel Sarout, a 21 year football player kissed Sheikh’s bloody head as the mostly young crowd of men and woman-chanted to the beat of drums: “Sleep easy we will continue the struggle… mothers weep for Syria’s youth.”

“When we film the protests to send on YouTube, most demonstrators would try to hide their face so they would not be identified by the security police,” said Wael, a young activist in the city. “Khaled was always barefaced, chanting the loudest.”

Security forces and militiamen loyal to Assad killed six civilians Sunday, including a father and his two children in a drive-by shooting and a woman university teacher in Homs, activists said.

Syrian authorities say they are fighting foreign-backed “terrorist groups” trying to spark civil war who have killed some 1,100 soldiers and police since March.

ESCAPE

One activist in Idlib, who gave his name as Alaa, said army defectors based in the nearby Jabal al-Zawiya region were seen near the secret police compound and helped the deserters escape in what appeared to be a coordinated operation.