Clinton urges boycott on Syrian oil as 17 more dead

For the first time, the U.S. called on other countries to stop buying Syrian oil and gas as it seeks to pressure president Bashar al-Assad to end a bloody Ramadan crackdown against protesters.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hinted that Washington might be making some headway in persuading European nations, China and India to curtail their energy ties with Syria, saying "stay tuned," the Guardian reported.

Clinton has said that the boycott was the best way to pressure Syria into stopping its crackdown on protesters, as security forces continue a bloody clampdown on protestors on Friday, killing at least 17 people in several towns.

Syria's crude oil production of 380,000 barrels a day generates most of the state's hard currency, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

"France, Germany, Holland and Italy consume the lion's share of Syrian oil exports, and Royal Dutch Shell is the country's largest foreign investor,"  said Andrew Tabler is Next Generation Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Meanwhile, Syria's security forces opened fire on protesters marching out of mosques in the suburbs of Damascus and in other major cities on Friday, activists said, in a further sign that President Bashar al-Assad remains undeterred by international warnings and sanctions, the Wall Street Journal reported.

In Hama and Deir el-Zour, cities that have especially been the targets of security forces in the past few weeks, Syrians protested after the noon prayer, only to be attacked.

At least 17 people were killed on Friday, in several cities and towns, including Douma, Aleppo, Homs, Hama and Deir ez-Zor.

Security forces fired on protesters in the Midan district of Damascus, one activist said, though he did not know if anyone had been injured or killed, Al Jazeera reports.

In two other suburbs of the capital, Douma and Saqba, five people were reportedly killed, he said.

One man was killed early on Friday while trying to flee when security forces began arresting residents in Saqba, Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told the AFP news agency.

In Homs, north of the capital, one man was shot and killed as security forces fired on worshippers leave the Aadawiyya Mosque following prayers, a local activist told Al Jazeera.

Another man was killed in Hama near the Tawheed Mosque when security forces opened fire after prayers.

Hama has been under a military siege since the beginning of Ramadan, and local activists report at least 200 people have died there, while more than 1,000 have been arrested.

Speaking at a news conference with the Norwegian foreign minister, Clinton stopped short of publicly calling for Assad's departure, the Guardian reported. Earlier in the week, the AP reported the US would officially call for Assad's ouster.

"We urge those countries still buying Syrian oil and gas, those countries still sending Assad weapons, those countries whose political and economic support give him comfort in his brutality, to get on the right side of history," she said.

U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said it was the first time Washington had explicitly called for a boycott of Syrian oil since the protests erupted in March.