* Deadline expires at 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Thursday
* U.N. observer planning team leaves Syria, no explanation
given
* Mortars pound Homs district, troops raid homes in Deraa
By Mariam Karouny and Douglas Hamilton
BEIRUT, April 12 (Reuters) – Syria was due to observe a
ceasefire from dawn on Thursday, but its fierce attacks on
opposition neighbourhoods in the run up to the U.N. deadline
fuelled widespread doubts it would comply.
The Syrian army also showed few signs of withdrawing troops
from urban areas, something supposed to have begun on Tuesday
under the peace plan agreed with international envoy Kofi Annan.
Activists reported more tanks moving in to a major city even
as a pledge to halt operations on Thursday morning was broadcast
on state television. The Defence Ministry source quoted by the
television giving the pledge on Wednesday also said the army
would confront “any assault” by armed groups.
Annan’s spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said on Wednesday night an
advance planning team negotiating how U.N. observers would
monitor the ceasefire had left Damascus after a week of talks.
He had no further comment on any progress reached by the
team led by Norwegian Major-General Robert Mood so it was not
clear whether the deployment had been agreed or called off.
Insurgents, who lack a clearly coordinated command
structure, said they would stop shooting if Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad’s forces withdrew and observed the truce.
“The Defence Ministry announcement is a detour on Annan’s
plan which clearly says he should pull back the tanks and end
violence. We will wait until tomorrow and see. We will not act
before tomorrow,” Qassem Saad al-Deen, Free Syrian Army
spokesman inside Syria, told Reuters on Wednesday.
At least 12 people were killed on Wednesday, activists said.
Western powers have scorned Assad’s truce pledges, but so
far lack an effective policy to curb the bloodshed, given their
own aversion to military intervention and the resistance of
Russia and China to any U.N. Security Council action.
Quoting from a letter to Annan from the Syrian foreign
ministry, Fawzi said the government had undertaken “to cease all
military fighting throughout Syrian territory as of 6 a.m. (0300
GMT) tomorrow, Thursday, 12 April, 2012, while reserving the
right to respond proportionately to any attacks carried out by
armed terrorist groups against civilians, government forces or
public and private property”.
He also stressed that troops should pull back.
Few in the Syrian opposition believe Assad has any intention
of complying with Annan’s plan to end 13 months of bloodshed.
“On the eve of the deadline for the full implementation of
the ceasefire in Syria, there is no sign on the ground of
compliance by the regime,” the main opposition Syrian National
Council (SNC) said in a statement.
Activist videos posted on YouTube showed a shopping mall
engulfed in flames after it was hit in bombardment of the Juret
al-Shayah district of Homs and bombs crashing into the city’s
Khalidiya district. The videos could not be verified and the
Syrian government bars most independent media from the country.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said three
people were killed in Homs and shelling killed a man, woman and
child in Qusair near the border with Lebanon. Three people were
killed near Damascus, the British-based opposition group said.
“Fighting is still raging as we speak, reflecting what has
been an intensification of the violence that the Syrian
government has pursued since April 1 when it committed to cease
all hostile actions by yesterday,” U.S. Ambassador to the United
Nations Susan Rice said in New York on Wednesday afternoon.
“Its commitments, therefore, have little if any credibility
given that track record,” she told reporters.
MORTAR BARRAGE
The SNC called for an international ultimatum to Assad if he
failed to respect the ceasefire.
“We would like to see a unanimous decision by members of the
Security Council that sends an ultimatum to the regime with a
deadline that is not too far down the road that says on such and
such a date enforcement measures will intervene,” SNC
spokeswoman Basma Kodmani said.
U.N. action would need the support of Russia and China,
which have blocked previous Security Council draft resolutions
on Syria, citing concerns about a Libya-style intervention that
would breach Syrian sovereignty.
“We will have another go at trying to persuade the Russians
that the situation is deteriorating and the likelihood of
regional conflict and civil war is increasing,” U.S. Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton said.
China expressed “deep worries” about the violence in Syria
and called for all sides to respect a ceasefire.
Russia stressed rebels battling to oust Assad must hold fire.
Turkey, hosting nearly 25,000 Syrian refugees, said Foreign
Minister Ahmet Davutoglu would speak with counterparts from the
Group of Eight major nations on Wednesday by telephone. Across
its border with Syria, fighting raged on Wednesday evening,
refugees at the border town of Kilis said.
Ankara has urged the Security Council to adopt a resolution
that would protect the Syrian people, saying Damascus had not
kept its troop withdrawal pledge and had increased the violence.
An activist in the city of Hama said at least 20 armoured
vehicles had newly moved into two central neighbourhoods, while
an opposition supporter in Rastan, between Hama and Homs, said
heavy shelling of the town began after the announcement by the
Syrian government that it would respect the ceasefire.
The SOHR said two people were killed in army raids in Deir
al-Zor in the Euphrates river valley far to the east. Artillery
shelled the Jebel Akrad area in the coastal province of Latakia.
In Deraa, cradle of the revolt against four decades of Assad
family rule, activists said troops backed by armoured vehicles
had flooded the city and were making house-to-house raids.
Activist Omar al-Hariri said he had never seen so many
troops: “The army is exploiting the ceasefire to arrest more
dissidents than ever and security forces are burning houses.”
“PART OF THE SOLUTION”
Annan, at a news conference with Iranian Foreign Minister
Ali Akbar Salehi, urged Iran to help resolve the violence and
warned of “unimaginable consequences” if it worsened further.
Salehi said Syrians should be able to have free elections
contested by political parties, but reiterated Iran’s opposition
to any outside interference in Syria’s affairs and made clear
the Islamic Republic wanted Assad to stay in charge.
“The opportunity must be given to the Syrian government to
make changes, under the leadership of Bashar al-Assad,” he said.
Iran has unstintingly backed Syria, the only Arab nation to
support Iran in its 1980-88 war with Iraq and the conduit for
Iranian arms to Lebanon’s Shi’ite Muslim Hezbollah movement.
Syria, where Assad’s Shi’ite-rooted Alawite minority
dominates a Sunni Muslim majority, has become an arena for a
sectarian-tinged regional contest between Shi’ite Iran and Sunni
Arab rivals aligned with the West and led by Saudi Arabia.
Assad’s forces have killed more than 9,000 people in the
past year, according to a U.N. estimate. Damascus says rebels
have killed more than 2,600 soldiers and security personnel.
