* Syrian army batters opposition areas before ceasefire
* Opposition reports 17 killed in Homs, 13 in cold blood
* Violence swells refugee influx into Turkey
By Erika Solomon and Douglas Hamilton
BEIRUT, April 7 (Reuters) – Syrian troops pounded opposition
areas, activists said, killing 74 civilians in an offensive that
has sent thousands of refugees surging into Turkey before next
week’s U.N.-backed ceasefire aimed at staunching a year of
bloodshed.
At least 15 rebels and 17 security force members were also
killed, raising the death toll in violence to over 100.
Each side has accused the other of intensifying assaults in
the run-up to the truce due to take effect early on Thursday if
government forces begin pulling back from towns 48 hours earlier
in line with U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan.
The military shelled Deir Baalba district in Homs, killing
four people, the grassroots Local Coordination Committees
opposition group said. Thirteen men were also found killed in
cold blood in the same area, it said.
Amateur activist video showed scenes of carnage said to be
the aftermath of the shelling. Mangled limbs and body parts in
blankets were being loaded on a pick-up truck. A second video
showed 13 men who appeared to have been tied up and executed.
No comment was immediately available from Syrian officials.
The videos could not be independently verified. The government
has placed tight restrictions on media access in Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 74
civilians had been killed, including 40 in an army attack on
al-Latmana, in Hama province, that began on Friday. The rebel
Free Syrian Army lost 15 men in the battle, it said, and 17
members of the security forces were killed across the country.
In an activist video from al-Latmana, mourners held aloft
the limp corpse of a child. A row of bodies lay on the ground.
The Observatory report said 12 were killed by shelling as
the army swept through villages in Idlib province.
A rocket hit a bus travelling from Lebanon to Syria at Jousa
just inside Syria, a Lebanese security source said. Witnesses
said six Syrians were killed. Lebanese medics confirmed two dead
and nine wounded. It was not clear who had fired the rocket.
Rebels trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad attacked
army posts north of Aleppo before dawn, killing an officer and
two men, and assaulted a helicopter base, activists said.
Syrian commandos shot dead three rebels in an overnight raid
on a “terrorist den”, Syria’s state news SANA agency reported.
Country towns north of Aleppo have endured days of clashes
and bombardment, prompting 3,000 civilians to flee over the
Turkish border on Friday alone – about 10 times the daily number
before Assad accepted Annan’s plan 10 days ago.
BAATH PARTY ANNIVERSARY
The Syrian leader is fighting a popular uprising, which he
blames on foreign-backed “terrorists”, that has spawned an armed
insurgency in response to violent repression of protests.
While many in Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority back the revolt,
especially in provincial areas, Assad retains support from his
own minority Alawite sect and other minorities fearful that his
overthrow would lead to civil war or Islamist rule.
In Damascus, thousands of flag-waving Assad supporters came
out to mark the founding in 1947 of Syria’s ruling Baath Party.
The bloodletting of the past week or so does not bode well
for implementation of Annan’s ceasefire plan.
This requires Assad to “begin pullback of military
concentrations in and around population centres” by Tuesday.
Rebel Free Syrian Army commander Colonel Riad al-Asaad said
his men would cease fire, provided “the regime … withdraws
from the cities and returns to its original barracks”.
Syria has said the plan does not apply to armed police, who
have played a significant role in battling the uprising in which
security forces have killed more than 9,000 people, according to
U.N. estimate. Syria says its opponents have killed more than
2,500 troops and police since the unrest began in March 2011.
Annan’s plan does not stipulate a complete army withdrawal
to barracks or mention police.
Satellite pictures published by U.S. ambassador Robert Ford
showed Syrian artillery and tanks still close to communities.
“This is not the reduction in offensive Syrian government
security operations that all agree must be the first step for
the Annan initiative to succeed,” Ford said in Washington.
A statement by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the
April 10 timeline “is not an excuse for continued killing”.
“The Syrian authorities remain fully accountable for grave
violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.
These must stop at once,” Ban said on Friday.
