Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Crackdown Expands

1811 GMT: The claim made in the title of the video: "Syrian actor Jalal Al Taweel leads protest during martyr Ibrahim Shayban's funeral." Ibrahim Shayban was a 10-year old boy who was reportedly killed yesterday in Midan, Damascus.

1745 GMT: Claimed footage of Bahraini police beating a protester in Nuwaidrat after arresting him on Friday:

1735 GMT: Footage of the clashes in the Yemeni capital Sana'a, in which at least 12 protesters were killed by regime forces:

1525 GMT: Syrian State news agency SANA reports that President Assad has issued the directive forming the national committee to prepare a draft Constitution. The 29-member committee must complete its work within four months.

Meanwhile, security forces in Damascus have killed at least one mourner and wounded five others at a funeral for a 9-year-old boy who was slain on Friday, according to the Local Coordination Committees of Syria.

The LCC said thousands participated in funerals in Daraa in the south, while armoured vehicles moved into a neighbourhood in Homs. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights added that security forces carried out raids in Kafrenbel in the northwest in a search for a defector from the intelligence services.

1515 GMT: The death toll from today's assault by regime forces on protesters in the Yemeni capital Sana'a is now 12. Another four people were slain and 13, includiing six civilians, were wounded when soldiers loyal to President Saleh clashed with military siding with the opposition.

An Al Jazeera English correspondent reports that the youngest victim of regime fire is 16, and the oldest is in their 60s:

[This is] a very brutal crackdown on a huge escalatory rally which set off at about 10:00am this morning. Protesters were aiming to march right into the city centre...towards the President's mosque.

They got about two-thirds of the way before the shooting broke out. But I saw with my own eyes - I witnessed plainclothes pro-regime loyalists being armed with batons and rocks, and I saw them heading towards the protesters, which suggested really that it was a premeditated attack which took place today as opposed to clashes which we've seen in the past.

Lots of people shot, I saw about 30-40 young men with bullets in their legs and their arms being laid out in this field hospital this afternoon. After about half an hour they ran out of space. There were no beds left, so they started just dumping people on the floor. Some people were even left outside of the hospital.

Very sober scenes of relatives coming into the hospital and finding their sons and their brothers had been shot and injured.

The correspondent adds, "Doctors have been appealing to me today and in the past for more help, and in particular for international help. A lot of Yemenis feel that the international community has been applying double standards: paying a lot of attention to Libya and Syria, but not really issuing really strong condemnations [on Yemen]."

1315 GMT: Claimed footage of a protest today in the Midan section of the Syrian capital Damascus:

1215 GMT: Back from a weekend break to find that Yemeni security forces have again opened fire on anti-regime demonstrators in the capital Sana'a, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens more.

Security forces used live rounds, as well as tear gas and water cannon, to disperse hundreds of thousands of people who were attempting to march on the city centre from the protest centre in Change Square.

A correspondent for Al Jazeera English said a huge rally was marching along a motorway in the north of the city towards the centre when it was attacked by pro-government supporters: "It started off with a few sporadic shots with Kalashnikov, then the sound of heavy machine guns and heavy mortar."

He/she added, "I have seen people rushed into the back of cars with blood pouring from their chests, the shooting is still ongoing, and I expect the death toll to rise."

The marchers, who were carrying olive leaves and did not appear to be armed, persisted despite the gunfire towards Zubeiri ("Kentucky") Roundabout.

Tariq Noman, the chief surgeon at a field hospital in Sana'a, confirmed that it had received 10 bodies and more than 100 injured. He said most of the dead were shot by by snipers in the head, the chest, and neck, and he expected the death toll to increase.

0715 GMT: This is how residents of Homs in Syria cross the street these days:

0655 GMT: And Bahrain was also far from quiet on Friday. During the day, there was the rally called by leading opposition groups:

At night, the sounds were of calls to prayer and firing from security forces:

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0645 GMT: I was a bit premature in my introduction to Friday's LiveBlog. Despite the restriction on communciations, news flowed rather than seeped out of Syria during a day of protests and clashes, albeit with little coming out of Homs, which appears to be close to cut off by the military.

That did not point to any lessening of the regime's pressure, however. James Miller captured the scene in the afternoon:

What we seem to be seeing in Syria, in the last two days but especially over the last few hours, is an intensifying crackdown. Reports and videos of tanks and violence are pouring in from an ever-expanding list of locations. So far, it appears that there have been reports of intense military crackdown in multiple cities in Daraa province, in multiple Damascus suburbs, especially Saqba, in Daeel, and in multiple parts of Houran province. These reports are in addition to reports of violence in Homs, which we are now (unfortunately) getting used to hearing.

The pattern continues of President Assad and his advisors trying to assert their authority and of many people --- but how many and in which areas? --- resisting. In Qamishli in the northeast, demonstrators wore shirts with the image of the slain Kurdish activist Meshaal Tammo: