SYRIAN SECURITY FORCES  killed at least three people after opening fire on a massive funeral procession for eight anti-government protesters slain the day before, a human rights activist said.

A rights group has raised Friday’s death toll to 44 — most in the northern province of Idlib and the central region of Homs — making it one of the deadliest days since an uprising against President Bashar Assad’s regime began two months ago. The government, meanwhile, put the toll at 17.

The continuing bloodshed, which has claimed at least 900 lives, raises questions whether international sanctions and harsh words from the U.S. and its allies will dissuade the Assad regime from using extreme force to crush the biggest challenge ever to its 40-year rule.

Despite the violence, tens of thousands of people took part in the funeral for eight of those killed on Friday in Homs, local activists said. The funeral procession came under fire as the people marched from the Tal al-Nasr cemetery, leaving two dead and dozens wounded.

The latest deaths bring to at least 900 the number of civilians killed in the government crackdown, according to the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria, whose chief Ammar Qurabi is currently in Turkey.

The government repeatedly has blamed the unrest on armed gangs — not true reform-seekers.

Syria’s state-run news agency, SANA, blamed Friday’s violence on “armed groups who took advantage of peaceful gatherings” shot dead 17 civilians, policemen and members of the military in Idlib and Homs. SANA quoted an unnamed Interior Ministry official as saying an armed group also attacked several police stations and vehicles.

Syria has banned foreign journalists and prevented local reporters from covering trouble spots, making it nearly impossible to independently verify witness accounts.

In an unexpected development, activists said the Interior Ministry gave them permission to hold a candlelight vigil in a Damascus public garden Monday for those who died since the uprising began. The Syrian Mobilization Committees urged Syrians to join the vigil saying it will be a sit-in “until the downfall of the regime.”

The Interior Ministry did not immediately confirm the report, but the private Sham FM radio station also said the activists were given a license to hold a vigil for just two hours.

The activists spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisal.

Meanwhile in Lebanon, a security official said thousands of Syrian troops deployed on Lebanon’s northern border preventing the flow of Syrian refugees into the country. The official said that after the army’s deployment, Syrians can only cross through official border points rather than enter Lebanon illegally.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said some 10,000 Syrians have fled to Lebanon since the Syrian army began an operation in the western town of Talkalakh, near Lebanon’s border, last week.

The turnout for Friday’s demonstrations — and the now-familiar, deadly response by the regime — was the latest sign the conflict could be moving toward a dangerous stalemate with neither side able to tip the scales. Assad’s forces have unleashed tanks and snipers and made thousands of arrests to break the revolt, but protesters continue to face down security forces.

Friday’s death toll reported by the NOHR said 13 people were killed in Homs, 26 in Idlib, one in Latakia, two in the northeastern town of Deir el-Zour, one each in the central city of Hama and the Damascus suburb of Daraya.

Mustafa Osso, who heads the Kurdish Organization for the Defense of Human Rights and the General Liberties in Syria, said security forces detained 12 officials of the Christian Democratic Assyrian Organization in the northeastern town of Qamishli late Friday. The reason of the arrests was not known, he said.

Assad has shrugged off U.S. calls to step aside as well as a new round of sanctions targeting him and top aides, suggesting mounting international pressure will not force an end to a crackdown.

Friday’s crushing security response came despite calls a day earlier from U.S. President Barack Obama that Assad should lead his country to democracy or “get out of the way”. Syria’s official news agency said Obama’s admonition amounted to “incitement.”

The revolt has posed the most serious challenge to the Assad family’s 40-year ruling dynasty.