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SUWAYDA24/AFP
Days of rare anti-government protests have taken place in the mainly Druze city of Suweida in Syria, triggered by deteriorating economic conditions.
Dozens of people marched through the streets for a fourth consecutive day on Wednesday, chanting "the people want the fall of the regime".
The same chant was heard at the start of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in 2011.
Syria's currency has plummeted in value recently, leading to soaring prices.
The government, whose supporters staged a counter-demonstration in Suweida on Wednesday, has blamed Western sanctions and exchange rate "manipulation".
Next week, new US sanctions will target individuals supporting the government and its allies in the nine-year civil war, which has left more than 380,000 people dead.
Suweida has largely been spared the horrors of the war.
Most Druze have stayed loyal to Mr Assad, fearing that religious minorities would be targeted if he was overthrown, and the city has remained in government hands.
The anti-government protests began on Sunday "with calls for improved living conditions before demands became more political", according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group.
As well as demanding that the president step down, the demonstrators have called for an end to corruption and the withdrawal of Iran-backed militiamen and Russian troops, who have helped the government regain control of most of the country.
The SOHR said there also had been talk in the government strongholds of Latakia, Tartous and Homs about "the departure of Assad as an option to improve the situation". That would have been "prohibited" in the past, it added.
In recent days, the value of the Syrian pound has collapsed on the black market, hitting a record low of 3,000 to the US dollar - more than four times the official exchange rate of 700. Before the war, the Syrian pound traded at 47 to the dollar.
Analysts said the recent devaluation was the result of fears over tough new US sanctions that will go into effect on 17 June under a law known as the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act.
The sanctions will target any foreign person who has knowingly provided significant financial, material, or technological support to the government of Syria, or to a foreign person operating in a military capacity inside Syria on behalf of the governments of Syria, Russia or Iran.
Food prices had already risen by 133% across Syria since May 2019 and some 9.3 million Syrians are food insecure, according to the World Food Programme.