Reports from Syria say security forces have now arrested thousands of people across the country as they intensify their crackdown on anti-government protests.
Human rights groups say 560 people have been killed in protests against the repressive rule of President Bashar al-Assad.
Foreign journalists are barred from Syria and the reports can not be independently confirmed.
More shooting and arrests have been reported in the embattled southern city of Deraa where the anti-government protests began in March, according to a BBC reporter in neighbouring Lebanon.
Hundreds of people have been detained in the Deraa following house-to-house raids, while hundreds of others have been arrested in other parts of the country.
Human rights groups in Syria say the numbers rounded up run into the thousands.
Amnesty International says many of those detained have been beaten and tortured.
The BBC reports the authorities are now portraying the entire crisis as an outside conspiracy orchestrated by Syria's enemies.
The government's position is still that the demonstrators are militant criminals and not - as evidence from the ground suggests - ordinary civilians calling for political reform.
