BEIRUT: Syrian security forces deployed in force across the central neighborhood of Mezzeh in Damascus Sunday, thwarting calls for a “day of defiance” after a mourner was shot dead in unprecedented protests in the capital a day earlier.

Security forces Saturday opened fire when the funeral for four others shot dead in the same area Friday turned into a mass protest in the upper-class central neighborhood, killing Samer al-Khatib.

The estimated 15,000 person turnout – one of the largest anti-regime rallies ever held in the capital – buoyed opposition groups. Saturday’s rallies were a significant development of an opposition movement that has yet to grip the capital and Syria’s second city of Aleppo.

“The funerals in Mezzeh turned into protests – it was the closest major gathering to Omayyad Square” in the city center, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights head, Rami Abdul-Rahman, told AFP.

Activists said the shootings during the funerals, in which many people were wounded, were followed by a “wave of searches and arrests” across the district, which is overlooked by the presidential palace.

But activists and residents said a heavy security deployment stymied attempts to stage new protests Sunday, with checkpoints and security forces stationed at major intersections and outside government buildings.

Businesses ground to a halt, activists said. Mohammad Shami, a spokesman for activists in Damascus province, told AFP most shops were shut in Mezzeh as well as in the Barzeh, Qaboon, Kfir Sousa and Jubar districts.

Student demonstrations had been expected in Mezzeh but security forces were stationed around schools, Shami said.

“There are road blocks into Mezzeh and checkpoints outside most official buildings,” one Mezzeh resident told The Daily Star.

He said the streets were quiet after sporadic gunfire and loud explosions Friday and Saturday.

Another activist, Abu Huzaifa from the Mezzeh Committee, told AFP that police forced the family of Khatib, 34, who died after being shot in neck Saturday, to bury him in a small ceremony earlier than planned in an apparent move to prevent protests.

In central Damascus shops opened as usual, witnesses said, while state television showed live interviews from Mezzeh with people who claimed life was proceeding normally.

In the northern second city of Aleppo, residents said the mood was tense.

“It feels like the calm before the storm,” said one resident. “Except the storm has already hit some neighborhoods ... Life is on hold here.”

Elsewhere, activists and official media reported at least six people killed Sunday.

A “terrorist group” killed Jamal Bish, a city councillor in Aleppo, the official SANA news agency reported.

It said that another “terrorist group” shot dead prosecutor Nidal Ghazal and judge Mohammad Ziyadeh and their driver in the northwestern province of Idlib Sunday.

Meanwhile, regime forces attacked the central city of Homs for the 15th day in a row, activists told The Daily Star.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces shot dead a woman when they stormed the town of Sukhna in Homs province as they hunted activists.

Sporadic shelling that targeted the Bab Amro neighborhood intensified in the afternoon, at the rate of four to five rockets a minute, said Hadi Abdullah of the General Commission of the Syrian Revolution. He said the districts of Bab Sbaa, Bab Dreib and Al-Safsafa were being targeted with sporadic shelling.

Abdullah voiced fears that the army was being reinforced.

“News has been leaked to us from army officers about a bloody attack that will burn everything in Baba Amr. We were expecting the attack two nights ago, but it could have been just delayed because of the snowstorm,” he said. Another activist, Abu Emad said Homs residents were “waiting for something, but we don’t know what ... We are losing hope.”

With pressure mounting on the streets in Syria’s two biggest cities, there were mixed messages on the diplomatic front.

Egypt recalled its ambassador to Damascus Sunday, following a call last week by the Arab League to cease diplomatic cooperation with the Syrian state.

The League has indicated that some of its members are prepared to arm the opposition, including the rebel Free Syrian Army.

However, China, Britain and the U.S. Sunday expressed caution over any foreign intervention in the crisis that has left an estimated 6,000 people dead.

In comments carried by the official Xinhua news agency, China said it believed a peaceful solution was still possible, and that any armed intervention would only spread turmoil. These comments came a day after Chinese Foreign Minister Zhai Jun met with President Bashar Assad.

“China believes, as many others do, there is still hope the Syria crisis can be resolved through peaceful dialogue between the opposition and the government, contrary to some Western countries’ argument that time is running out for talks in Syria,” the Xinhua commentary said.

China has emerged as a leading player in the multiple international efforts in Syria and is one of Assad’s main defenders.

British Foreign Minister William Hague meanwhile reiterated the West’s position that there would be no “Libya-style intervention,” telling the BBC: “We cannot intervene in the way we did in Libya ... we will do other things.”

He said he feared “Syria is going to slide into a civil war and that our powers to do something about it are very constrained because, as everyone has seen, we have not been able to pass a resolution at the U.N. Security Council because of Russian and Chinese opposition.”

In Washington, the top U.S. military officer, General Martin Dempsey, said that intervening in Syria would be “very difficult” because it was not another Libya. “It would be a big mistake to think of this as another Libya,” Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.

Syria’s army is “very capable,” with a sophisticated, integrated air defense system and chemical and biological weapons, Dempsey said.

He also thought it was premature to arm the opposition movement in Syria, because “I would challenge anyone to clearly identify for me the opposition movement in Syria at this point.”

In a sign sanctions were taking a toll on the Syrian economy, leading Syrian businessman, Faisal al-Qudsi, told the BBC Sunday that the Syrian economy was being crippled by foreign sanctions and the government was “slowly disintegrating” under anti-regime protests.

Qudsi, the son of a former Syrian president who was heavily involved in the country’s economic liberalization, said sanctions were affecting the entire country, not just Assad’s regime.

“The apparatus of the government is slowly disintegrating and it’s almost non-existent in trouble spots like Homs, Idlib, Deraa,” he told the BBC World Service in London. “Courts are not there, police are not interested in any sort of crime and it is affecting the government very, very badly, every day it continues.”

Qudsi said Iran was sending “quite a lot of cash” to support Syria through Iraq, but it was not enough, adding that most of the top businessmen he knew had left because of fears for their safety.

“Since April, tourism has stopped and that’s about 15 percent of GDP. Since November, the oil exports have stopped and that’s another 30 percent of GDP that’s gone,” he said.

The European Union has imposed oil and arms embargoes against Syria and is currently planning a new set of restrictions.

The U.S. and Canada have also imposed sanctions, while Arab nations have banned transactions with the Syrian government and central bank and frozen Syrian government assets in Arab countries.