Video | Tahrir Square‘reborn’ in Syria as thousands occupy square in protest

The protesters are insisting that they will not leave the square until they bring down the country’s leadership – reminiscent of Egypt’s Tahrir Square clashes escalated between pro and anti establishment demonstrators.

The BBC is reporting that until Monday evening, the crowds were still present, and human rights campaigners are claiming that security forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad had fired shots at the protesters.

In the meantime, Syria's interior ministry has said the unrest amounts to armed insurrection. President Assad already said on Saturday that he would end nearly half a century of emergency rule next week - a key demand of the demonstrators.

Activists say that checkpoints have been set up around the square to ensure that people coming in are unarmed civilians.

One man, who said his brother was shot dead in Sunday's protests, told how volunteers were providing the demonstrators with food and water.

The echos with Tahrir Square are not only historical - AFP news agency quoted one demonstrator as saying that "more than 20,000 people are taking part in the sit-in at Al-Saa Square and we have renamed it Tahrir Square like the one in Cairo. It is an open-ended sit-in which will continue until all our demands are satisfied."

A human rights campaigner, who is in contact with the protesters, told Reuters news agency they had been ordered to leave, before the security forces opened fire and used tear gas. At least one person was injured, according to the activist.

The stand-off followed Monday's mass funeral processions for slain protesters, with mourners calling for an end to Assad's rule. At least 12 people died in Homs on Sunday after soldiers fired on crowds protesting at the death of a tribal leader in state custody.

Human rights groups say at least 200 protesters have been killed in the past four weeks as protests first broke out in the southern city of Deraa, before spreading.

The unrest poses the most serious challenge to Assad's rule since he succeeded his father, Hafez al-Assad, 11 years ago.

However, according to the official Sana news agency which has also been reporting on events in Homs, three army officers including a brigadier-general, together with his two sons and a nephew, were killed on Sunday by "armed criminal gangs", which then mutilated the bodies.

In a statement, the interior ministry said: "The course of the previous events... have revealed that they are an armed insurrection by armed groups belonging to Salafist organisations, especially in Homs and Baniyas."

Salafism is a strict form of Sunni Islam which many Arab governments equate with militant groups like al-Qaeda.

US state department spokesperson Mark Toner said the Syrian government needed to address the "legitimate aspirations of its people".