Syrian opposition figures on Wednesday circulated copies of a plan hatched at a meeting supposedly attended by Syrian President Bashar Assad's top security adviser, which detailed instructions to kill pro-democracy protesters, MSNBC reports.

The document was initially posted on the Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook page.

Open gallery view A pro-Syrian President Bashar Assad holds his portrait, Beirut, April 12, 2011. Credit: AP

The plan was allegedly hatched in order to preserve the existing political order, but instructed to limit the amount of opposition figures killed to only 20 at a time.

The document's authenticity has not yet been independently verified, but if its authorship can be proven, it would provide the most convincing evidence of the Syrian government's intentions to brutally crush the country's anti-government protest movement using underhanded tactics, including blaming Israel for street riots.

Thousands of Syrians have taken to city streets across the country to protest the rule of President Bashar Assad, inspired by popular revolutions in the Arab world. The demonstrations in Syria have thus far been significantly smaller than the protests in the North African states of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

The circulated document instructs government agent to spread disinformation and blame the protests on "Zionists". In his first public appearance after popular protests broke out in Syria in March, President Assad said that the objective of the conspirators, who make up a minority, was to "enforce an Israeli agenda."

An English translation of the document of protocols provided by MSNBC laid out a plan in which Syrian government agents would infiltrate protester groups in online forums and in street crowds, in order to spread disunity among the demonstrators.

One of the most scandalous tactics discussed in the document is the permission granted to secret government agents who are infiltrating groups of demonstrators to shoot army officers, in order to provoke the ire of police against the protesters.

The document prescribes meting out carefully measured violence so as not to trigger material support from sympathetic internationals. "The number of people killed must not exceed twenty each time, because it would let them be more easily noticed and exposed, which may lead to situations of foreign intervention," the document read.

