Tweet   DAMASCUS, Syria — Protests broke out in four Syrian cities on Friday, the first large-scale demonstrations here since the pro-democracy uprisings began in the Arab world three months ago. Brutal police crackdowns followed, leaving six people dead and scores injured.  In the largest protests, several thousand people gathered in the center of Dara’a, in southern Syria, chanting “God, Syria a More..nd freedom only,” witnesses said. They demanded the resignation of the mayor and the leader of the local branch of the security police. The police later opened fire on the crowd, killing six, the witnesses said. There were also protests in Banias, on the Mediterranean coast; in the central city of Homs; and here, in the capital. A Facebook page, “the Syrian revolution 2011,” has called on people to protest against corruption and repression. Antigovernment protests are virtually unknown in Syria, a police state where political opposition has been brutally suppressed in the past. Small protests in the capital on Tuesday and Wednesday were violently dispersed by the authorities, who arrested scores of demonstrators. The state news service, SANA, dismissed those protests as the work of outside agitators. It reprised that explanation on Friday, saying on its Web site that after some citizens gathered in front of the Omari Mosque in Dara’a, “some outsiders exploited the situation and caused chaos, damaging public and private properties.” The protest in Dara’a arose in part from the arrest earlier this month of about 20 youths who had written graffiti complaining about the high cost of living and calling for more freedoms. Videos posted on YouTube show the security services trying to disperse the crowd with water cannons. The situation escalated later, a witness said. “They used live ammunition immediately, no tear gas or anything else,” said the witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity. In Damascus, a crowd at the Ummayad Mosque tried to m...