The nine-month old uprising is said to have been further emboldened by the presence of 60 Arab League monitors who arrived in Syria at the beginning of the week.

Their brief is to spearhead the implementation of a peace plan --

But with continuing daily confrontations and the observers accompanied by government security and officials some believe they will not see the full picture.

Meanwhile, Syrian activists are calling for more protests across the country on Friday.

They say they want Arab League monitors to take action to end the violence.

At least 38 people were killed by security forces on Thursday.

Al Jazeera's Nick Toksvig reports.