US slaps sanctions on Syrian intelligence agencies after bloodshed at protests (UPDATES) (VIDEO)

The U.S. has placed sanctions on Syria's intelligence agency and two relatives of President Bashar al-Assad after a day of reported bloodshed at protests in the country, Australia's ABC reports.

Soldiers fired on protesters carrying olive branches through the town of Daraa on Friday, killing at least 16 people, among 60 reportedly killed in five locales across the country, according to Reuters. Human rights groups say at least 48 civilians were killed in the demonstrations, including 13 in the town of Rastan, north of Homs.

Tens of thousands had taken to the streets in what organizers proclaimed a “Friday of Rage” against the government’s crackdown on a six-week uprising.

The Syrian government stationed army units around the capital and other cities ahead of the pro-democracy protests Friday. Syrian Republican Guard trucks equipped with machine guns and carrying soldiers in combat gear patrolled the circular road around Damascus ahead of Friday prayers, a witness told Reuters.

Activists had called for protests via a statement on the Facebook page of Syrian Revolution 2011.

"To the youths of the revolution, tomorrow we will be in all the places, in all the streets … We will gather at the besieged towns, including with our brothers in Deraa," the statement said, according to Al Jazeera.

It said demonstrations would also be staged in other flashpoint towns such as Homs in the center of the country and the coastal town of Baniyas, in the northwest.

Meantime, the outlawed Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood, crushed by the regime in 1982, has for the first time called directly for protests in Syria.

A declaration by the Brotherhood, sent to Reuters by its leadership in exile on Thursday, said: "Do not let the regime besiege your compatriots. Chant with one voice for freedom and dignity. Do not allow the tyrant to enslave you. God is great."

Information Minister Adnan Mahmud, meanwhile, told Agence France-Presse that the crackdown on protesters would continue — as they have done since pro-democracy demonstrations against Assad erupted nearly six weeks ago.

The U.S. sanctions amounted to Washington's first concrete steps in response to a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations. However, Assad — the focus of the protests — was not among those targeted under an order signed by President Barack Obama.

The U.N. Human Rights Council, meanwhile, voted for a mission to be sent to Syria to investigate alleged violations of international human rights law and crimes committed against civilians, according to the UN News Center.

Condemning the use of deadly violence against peaceful demonstrators and the “hindrance of access to medical treatment,” the council urged the Syrian Government to respect fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of expression and assembly.

In a resolution supported by 26 of the Council’s 47 Member States, the Geneva-based panel, it also called for the restoration of access to the Internet and other communication networks, the lifting of media censorship and to allow foreign journalists into the country.

And it requested that the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights dispatch a mission to Syria to investigate alleged violations.

Earlier in the week, several EU governments summoned Syrian ambassadors to condemn the violence in Syria and insist that Assad end the crackdown.

Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain were spurred into action by criticisms that the international community has dragged its feet over Syria while focusing on Libya.