Security forces have killed at least 22 people in Syria, the Local Co-ordination Committees say, despite President Bashar al-Assad's claim this week that his government had halted its crackdown on protests.

Six people were killed when security forces attacked a mosque in Inkhil village in Deraa province, activists told Al Jazeera, as fresh protests broke out across the country around midday on Friday.

Deaths were also reported elsewhere in Deraa province, in Homs and in the Damascus suburbs of Harasta and Douma.

In the southern Damascus suburb of Qadam, a protest of an estimated 6,000 people chanted for Assad to be sent to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, a witness told Al Jazeera.

After firing tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowd, some of the hundreds of members of the security forces deployed to Qadam opened live fire, injuring at least five, according to the witness and activists.