BEIRUT: Arab League monitors appeared to give some level of protection to peaceful protesters who gathered in their largest numbers yet Friday to demonstrate against the government of President Bashar Assad.

Activists estimated up to 250,000 people turned out to protest in two of the country’s most restive cities of Hama and Idlib.

Elsewhere, opposition activists said that Syrian security forces opened fire at protesters Friday, and killed up to 22 people.

Five members of the security forces were also killed in a shooting in the city of Homs, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Assad, 46, has signed up to an Arab League plan for a verifiable withdrawal of his heavy weaponry and army from cities, where more than 5,000 people have been killed since March – many shot during peaceful anti-government protests but also many killed in rebel attacks and local defense actions.

But the presence of Arab League monitors in hotspots across Syria since Monday has, if anything, energized the protesters.

Demonstrators determined to show the strength of their movement to the monitors Friday threw rocks at security forces in the Damascus suburb of Douma, where troops tear gassed the chanting crowds.

Five people were shot dead in the city of Hama and five in the city of Deraa in the south as crowds braved army and police.

“We are determined to show them [the monitors] we exist. Whether or not there’s bloodshed is not important,” an activist named Abu Khaled said by telephone from the northern city of Idlib, one of the epicenters of nine months of unrest.

Most foreign media are banned from Syria and witness reports are hard to verify.

An opposition supporter named Manhal said thousands had tried to reach the main square to start a sit-in, but failed “because the security forces are firing a lot of tear gas and a few rounds of live fire.”

“People hoped the presence of monitors will prevent fierce attacks. I believe we have partial protection, I don’t think they would use live fire on us in front of the monitors.”

Amateur video from Idlib showed monitors in white baseball caps and yellow safety vests wading through a sea of protesters.

Some rushed at the observers, trying to shout a few words over the thousands chanting “The people want to liberate the country!”

Some held up banners with the names of those shot dead in protests: “We will not forget your spilled blood,” they read.

In the Damascus suburb of Douma, protesters bore away a man whose leg had been shredded by what they said were “nail bombs.”

Activists in Idlib said the army had concealed its tanks in buildings on the outskirts or in dugouts.

The Arab League mission has met with strong skepticism from the outset – over its makeup, its small numbers, its reliance on Syrian government logistics, and an initial assessment by its Sudanese chief that the situation was “reassuring.” That comment was met with disbelief in the West Wednesday, but Friday Syria’s ally Russia accepted the judgment.

“Judging by the public statements made by the chief of the mission [Sudanese General Mohammad] al-Dabi, who in the first of his visits went to the city of Homs ... the situation seems to be reassuring,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on its website.

However, Friday Dabi, whom some link to war crimes in Darfur in the 1990s, said the reports of his comments were “unfounded and not true,” a mission statement said. Another Arab League monitor told an angry crowd that his team’s job was only to observe, not to help them remove the president they have been rebelling against for nine months, live video on Al-Jazeera showed Friday.

“Our goal is to observe ... it is not to remove the president, our aim is to return Syria to peace and security,” he said, speaking over a loudspeaker from a podium at a mosque filled with protesters in the Damascus suburb of Douma. But the observer, who did not give his name, said he promised to convey the protesters’ sufferings.

“From what I have heard there is blood being shed,” he said. “That is for sure.”

Activist video from Homs over the months has depicted a trail of death and destruction sown by the military.

The monitoring teams have encountered a range of problems, from hostility when they turn up under army escort to random gunfire, shouting mobs and communications breakdowns.

An Arab League member from a Gulf State played down expectations for the mission, which has no peacekeeping mandate. Even if its report turned out to be negative, it would not “act as a bridge to foreign intervention” but indicate that “the Syrian government has not implemented the Arab initiative,” the delegate said.

The commander of the anti-government Free Syrian Army told Reuters its fighters had been ordered to stop offensive operations pending a meeting with Arab League delegates.