Twenty-one civilians were killed in violence in Syria, with the security forces shooting dead 17 people and four killed by a rocket that targeted a pro-regime demonstration, a rights group said.
Eleven civilians were killed in the flashpoint central city of Homs, four of whom were at the demonstration, and another 10 were killed in the restive province of Idlib in the northwest, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP.
In Homs "the security forces opened fire on protesters, killing seven of them", said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britain-based observatory.
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Separately, "unknown elements fired ... a rocket on Saturday evening at a pro-regime district where residents had gathered with candles to remember the victims of the bombing in Damascus, killing four and wounding numerous others", he added.
"In the Maaret Dabse locality of Idlib province, 10 civilians were killed when government forces fired on them indiscriminately," Abdel Rahman said.
Saturday's violence took place as thousands of regime supporters attended the funerals of 26 people killed in a suicide bombing in the Syrian capital on Friday. The government branded that incident a "terrorist attack" and promised to avenge it with "an iron fist".
Another 63 people were wounded in Friday's attack, which the opposition blamed on the regime itself, as it did after similar attacks in Damascus on December 23, in which 44 people died.
The funerals were held in the Al-Hassan mosque in the working-class Midan neighbourhood where Friday's attack took place.
As thousands of regime supporters gathered outside, many waving flags, Damascus mufti Bashir Eid preached a funeral sermon in the presence of several ministers, officials and ordinary people.
"With our souls and our blood we will sacrifice ourselves for you," the crowd outside chanted to President Bashar al-Assad.
The ruling party's Al-Baath daily devoted half of its Saturday issue to the attack, including two pages of colour photos of the carnage.
One headline said Syrians were calling for the perpetrators to be "struck with an iron fist". Another headline said, "We are not afraid of oil money" - an allusion to alleged involvement in the 10-month-old pro-democracy uprising by Gulf Arab oil states.
And the official Ath-Thawra daily pointed the finger at Islamists, saying they had "committed many crimes in the past and they are doing it again today as a sign of defiance".
That was a reference to bloody attacks during a rebellion by the Muslim Brotherhood between 1978 and 1986 which was brutally crushed by Assad's late father and predecessor, Hafez.
But the Brotherhood, which has since renounced violence, said on Friday that "we hold the regime, its agents and its gangs, fully responsible for this crime".
It had also accused the government of orchestrating the December 23 attacks that the regime blamed on al-Qaeda, and it called for an international probe, claiming the attack benefited the regime.
The umbrella Syrian National Council, which includes the Brotherhood, said Friday's bombing "clearly bears the regime's fingerprints".
US condemns attack
The United States condemned the attack, again calling for Assad to step down, while UN chief Ban Ki-moon said "all violence is unacceptable and must stop immediately".
Assad ally Iran condemned the "terrorist attack".
Foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said: "Without doubt, the unity and vigilance of the Syrian government and people are disappointing the enemies of Syria who think only of internal war, breaking up the country and making it submit to the demands of the axis of America and Zionism."
The SNC said the UN Security Council had to take up the matter of the bloodshed, which the world body estimated in December had killed more than 5000 people since pro-democracy protests erupted last March.
It said "a joint effort between the Arab League and the United Nations Security Council represents a first step toward the urgent and necessary measures to assure the protection of civilians, and
to ensure that the regime does not commit additional bombings and killings".
Activists have called for an Arab League observer mission that has been in the country since December 26 to admit its failure to stem the bloodshed and hand the task over to the United Nations.
The UN's Ban Ki-moon reaffirmed an offer to train the Arab League observers.
