ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.
The U.N. Security Council is debating the creation of a small observer mission in Syria to monitor the new ceasefire. That truce is now in its second day.
As NPR's Grant Clark reports from Beirut, thousands of anti-government protesters took advantage of the relative lull today and took to the streets.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHANTING PROTESTERS)
GRANT CLARK, BYLINE: Videos of the protests in Syria were posted on YouTube throughout the day, this one from the central city of Hama.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHANTING PROTESTERS)
CLARK: In many localities, Syrian security forces did not appear to harass the protesters but in Hama, the response was different, according to this amateur footage that could not be independently authenticated.
(SOUNDBITE OF GUNFIRE)
SAMER AL-HUSAIN: We had big number of demonstrators today in Hama. They were demonstrating in the mosque and then there was shooting at them by security forces.
CLARK: That's Hama activist, Samer al-Husain. He says two people were killed in his city and another in a suburb.
AL-HUSAIN: People were encouraged as the result of the plan of Kofi Annan. They were encouraged to go out and demonstrate. These are peaceful demonstrators. They are not from the FSA, from the Free Syrian Army.
CLARK: Early today, rebels from that Free Syrian Army clashed with government forces near the Turkish border. And later, activists reported tank and rocket fire by government troops in the central city of Homs, long a hotbed of support for the rebels and the anti-government protesters.
Grant Clark, NPR News, Beirut. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.