Some 500 Druze living on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights on Friday held a rally of support for embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad, an AFP photographer said.

Waving Syrian flags and portraits of Assad, the demonstrators marched through Majdal Shams. "We love you, Bashar ... We are with the Syrian army," they chanted.

The White House on Friday called on Syrian President Bashar Assad to "step down now," warning he was taking his country down a "very dangerous path."

In a statement, spokesman Jay Carney condemned the killing of Kurdish opposition leader Meshaal Tamo as well as the beating of a prominent Syrian activist, saying it showed "again that the Assad regime's promises for dialogue and reform are hollow."

A top Kurdish activist and nine other people were killed Friday as thousands rallied in support of a new opposition front, activists said, as Washington accused Syria of escalating attacks on dissidents.

The latest violence came as Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said President Bashar al-Assad will have to leave power if he fails to implement reforms acceptable to the opposition, and Damascus again blamed "terrorists" for the unrest.

Eight Syrians were shot dead on Friday as thousands of people rallied against the regime of President Bashar Assad and in support of a newly formed opposition front, activists said.

The fresh surge of violence came as Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Assad will have to give up power if he fails to implement reforms acceptable to the opposition, and the Syrian regime again blamed "terrorists" for the unrest.

Syrians rallied in their thousands after weekly prayers on Friday, pledging support to a newly-formed opposition front and calling for an end to President Bashar Assad's regime, activists said.

Sirte was rocked by deadly street fighting on Friday in what troops from the new regime said was the final assault on Moammar Gadhafi's besieged hometown, with orders that they take it "today."

Medics said at least four regime fighters had been killed and dozens more wounded from fighting on the west side of the city, and an Agence France Presse correspondent said ambulances continued to arrive in a steady stream at a nearby field hospital.

Syria will shortly present the United Nations with a list of more than 1,100 people it says have been killed by "terrorists" in ongoing unrest in the country, its deputy foreign minister said Friday.

"Syria is grappling with terrorist threats," Faysal Mekdad said in a speech to the 47-state U.N. Human Rights Council at it reviewed the situation in Syria.

A 16-year-old Shiite protester has been shot dead by Bahraini security forces during a demonstration in western Manama, the al-Wefaq opposition group said on Friday.

Ahmed Jaber al-Qatan was hit Thursday night by bird shot used by anti-riot police in the Gulf kingdom ruled by the Sunni al-Khalifa dynasty, where the Shiite majority led pro-democracy protests that were quashed in mid-March.

Israel limited access to Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Friday for fear of violence on the Muslim weekly day of prayer, which leads directly into Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, police said.

The restrictions were part of a wider lockdown, under which the army closed all entry points from the West Bank on Thursday night.

Israel's Supreme Court on Thursday barred nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu from emigrating on the grounds he still poses a threat to state security, Israeli media reported.

Vanunu, under orders to stay in Tel Aviv and not to speak to journalists, "has proved several times he cannot be trusted and does not respect the letter of the law," Supreme Court judges said in turning down his appeal.