112 people had been killed on Friday's anti-governmental massacre in Syria as the security forces opened fire and used teargas against demonstrators who demanded political freedoms and an end to corruption, EFE Spanish news agency said on Saturday, citing opposition activists.
The clashes took place in several Syrian regions including a town of Izraa, in the southern province of Deraa, the epicentre of the protests, where 31 people died. Several dozens of people had also been killed in Homs, Damascus and in the suburbs of Moadamia, Hajr al Aswad and Douma.
Syrian media called a "fiction" Al Jazeera's reports about 10, 000 protesters, gathered in the city of Salamiyah, in western Syria.
Russian Foreign Ministry on Saturday urged Syrian authorities to stop violence.
"It is necessary for the government, all the social and political as well as confessional powers of the friendly Syria to stop violence and continue the search for the fair solutions of the pressing issues within the law," the Ministry said in a statement.
On Friday U.S. President Barack Obama condemned the Syrian authorities for the use of force to quell nationwide protests against Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.
Syrian mass protests started in Daraa on the border with Jordan on March 18. They were prompted by the arrest of a group of school students who wrote anti-government mottos on walls. The unrest later spread to other Syrian regions.
At least 300 people have been killed in protests and clashes that have raged in the country since mid-March, according to Syrian opposition.
In response to the protests, Assad formed a new government, promised a score of political and economic reforms, and even lifted on Tuesday the almost five-decade long state of emergency in the country.
However, these measures failed to pacify the opposition prompting the government to resort to violence in dealing with the protesters.
Public protests in the Middle East and North Africa have recently ousted regimes in Egypt and Tunisia, and led to a raging civil war in Libya.
MOSCOW, April 23 (RIA Novosti)
