Despite government promises two days ago to pull back from intense confrontations with protesters, Syrian security forces fanned out in force after Friday prayers, surrounding mosques to prevent demonstrations and using gunfire to disperse crowds, opposition groups said.

At least 15 civilians were reported killed, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The deaths are the latest in a nearly eight-month uprising that began with calls for elections and an end to abuses by security forces, but morphed into widespread and persistent calls for President Bashar al-Assad’s ouster as the government’s crackdown on demonstrations intensified.

The Local Coordinating Committees, which organizes protests in the country, said Friday that 3,834 people have died in Syria since anti-government protests erupted in March, amid the Arab Spring movements that have rocked the Middle East and North Africa. Al-Assad and other Syrian officials have blamed violence on outside forces attempting to undermine the 40-year rule of the president’s family.

On Friday, forces surrounded the Abu Bakr mosque in Baniyas, assaulting some people as they left and trapping hundred of others inside to prevent them from protesting, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Forces also spread out near the Fattahi mosque in Latakia, according to the Local Coordinating Committees.

Explosions shook a Daraa neighborhood, and forces used gunfire to disperse protesters in Deir Ezzor, the human rights group said, while the LCC said demonstrators marched in Hasakeh and Hama. Government snipers also were deployed around the commercial market and mosques, the LCC said.

Six of the 15 deaths reported Friday came in the northwestern city of Homs, while two others died in Daraa, in the south, two on the Syria-Jordan border and the rest in villages scattered across Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Meanwhile, Syria’s official news agency SANA reported that 13 soldiers and police officers were killed fighting “armed terrorist groups” in Hama, Homs and Idlib and that four were wounded in a gunfight in Kanaker. SANA said police killed one of the gunmen in what appeared to be the same clash reported by the Syrian Observatory as a firefight between Syrian government loyalists and defectors from the armed forces.

The agency also said engineers dismantled two remote-controlled bombs in Deir Ezzor.

CNN cannot independently verify the reports from either side, because Syria limits access for international news organizations.

The Interior Ministry said Friday that Syrians who turn in their weapons would receive amnesty so long as they have not killed anyone, according to State TV.

The developments came a day after government forces killed at least 25 civilians nationwide and rounded up anti-government protesters and two days after the government of embattled President Bashar al-Assad agreed to an Arab League plan to bring an end to the crisis.

The government agreed to pull its army off the streets, release people jailed since the protests began in March and allow international journalists and Arab League observers to monitor the moves, Arab League ministers announced Wednesday.

The regional organization will moderate a “national dialogue” after two weeks, the ministers said.

Syria has made previous pledges to withdraw armed forces from civilian areas. But in some of those cases, it withdrew only armored units and left infantry in place, or returned after a brief pullout. Anti-government activists criticized those steps as efforts by al-Assad’s regime to buy time. It also has made other moves aimed at defusing the protests, including plans to draft a new constitution, but they have failed to appease the demonstrators.

The Free Syrian Army — a group of military deserters who have helped defend anti-government protesters — said it would abide by the Arab League agreement “as long as the regime commits to the same.” But it warned that if the government fails to abide by the deal, “We will be compelled to protect the protesters and work on bringing down the regime no matter how much that may cost us.”

SANA reported the Arab League agreement Thursday, with Arab League Ambassador Yousef Ahmad quoted as promising Syria would carry out reforms and draft a new constitution “in spite of the vicious campaign against it.”

“Ambassador Ahmad expressed hope that the document will be the beginning of an ongoing, honest and transparent cooperation based on true commitment to Syria’s security, stability and unity and the prosperity of its people,” SANA said.

Ahmad also said Syria “will remain under the leadership of President Bashar al-Assad a haven for all Syrians and Arabs,” according to SANA.

A Syrian opposition figure, Samir Nashar, met with Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Al Araby on Thursday at the League’s headquarters in Cairo, a source within the organization told CNN. Nashar is the head of the Syrian National Council, a recently formed opposition group supported by a coalition of Egyptian activists.

Opposition figures are still demanding al-Assad’s ouster and refuse any dialogue with the president, but the Arab League source said they may consider negotiations toward the transfer of power to a democratic government.

“The opposition demands al-Assad to step down and accuses him of stalling,” the source said.