Syria: Forces face conflict deadline
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Syria says it has withdrawn troops from some regions
- Hundreds of Syrians escaped to Turkey recently
- More than two dozen people are killed as fresh violence erupts nationwide
- Advance U.N. monitoring team headed to Damascus on Thursday
(CNN) -- Syria says it has withdrawn troops from some restive regions, U.N.-Arab League joint envoy Kofi Annan's spokesman said Thursday. Authorities said they have pulled soldiers from Daraa in the south, Idlib in the north and Zabadani in the Damascus suburbs, Ahmad Fawzi said. U.N officials are working to verify the claims, he said.
Authorities said they have pulled soldiers from Daraa in the south, Idlib in the north and Zabadani in the Damascus suburbs, Ahmad Fawzi said. U.N officials are working to verify the claims, he said.
Activists say violence continues to rage in Syria, where a bloody government crackdown launched against protesters in March 2011 has left thousands dead.
At least 27 people died on Thursday, according to the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria. The deaths occurred in Homs, Idlib, Hama, and the Damascus suburb town of Douma. In the Homs province town of Rastan, artillery shelling killed a 70-year-old man and three children, ages, 6, 8, and 16.
President Bashar al-Assad's regime has pledged to pull its troops out of cities by Tuesday, April 10, to comply with Annan's peace plan.
The plan calls for authorities to stop troop movement toward populated centers and end the use of heavy weapons. It also urges a cease-fire by the government and the opposition, and a Syrian-led political process to end the crisis.
Fawzi made the comments as a U.N. advance team headed to Damascus to plan a cease-fire monitoring team. The "supervising and monitoring" mission would be comprised of "unarmed military personnel."
Despite the pullback reports, activists say violence continues to rage in Syria, where a year-long bloody government crackdown against protesters have left thousands dead.
"We haven't really settled on the final figure" of monitors, "but the numbers I've been reading in the media are 200 to 250," Fawzi said.
The planning team "will talk to a range of people in the Syrian government. They need to talk to all levels of people in the government, the military and security apparatus. They need to talk about logistics of deployment of this force. You don't just send troops in," he said.
Fawzi said the Tuesday deadline is "very clear" and "precise."
Asked whether the planning team would communicate with the Syrian opposition, he said "no."
"There will be a 48-hour cease fire after April 10," he said. "We hope monitoring mission will be in place (to verify the cease-fire on April 10), but it has to be determined by Security Council," he said.
As Annan works to quell the violence, the clashes, shelling and raids have sent scores fleeing into neighboring nations.
Several miles away from the city of Idlib, where the Syrian government claimed to have begun the withdrawal of its forces, eyewitnesses said a military helicopter fired rockets on Thursday against the town of Taftanaz. A video e-mailed to CNN by opposition activists in the neighboring town of Binnish showed a helicopter which appeared to be firing missiles.
Binnish, Taftanaz and other towns in Idlib province have been the target of a recent Syrian military offensive that has triggered a fresh wave of refugees fleeing to neighboring Turkey.
More than 1,600 Syrians have arrived in Turkey in the past day, according to the latter's disaster and emergency management agency, bringing the total number of Syrian citizens in Turkey to more than 21,000 people.
A refugee named Imad Dibo, from the village of Maraa said he was among a group of three families that escaped together to Turkey from Syria's Idlib province because of attacks by security forces. He said some people traveled by car and others, like his group, crossed into Turkey on foot.
The LCC said the regime has initiated a new tactic: "systematically burning and bulldozing homes of revolutionaries and their families in order to displace them from their respective areas.
"On Wednesday, during their destruction and killing campaign, the regime's army deliberately set at least 20 houses on fire," in one Idlib province town," the LCC said on Thursday. "This morning, in the city of Douma, regime forces barbarically destroyed and set many houses on fire. Yesterday in Zabadani and depriving the townspeople of their livelihood, regime forces set many farms and orchards on fire."
The United Nations has estimated at least 9,000 people have been killed in Syria since anti-government protests started in March last year, while opposition activists have come up with higher figures. The opposition Local Coordination Committees, a network of activists on the ground, has documented more than 11,000, deaths.
"We coordinated with smugglers and the Turkish army received us," Dibo said. "The regime is responsible for all of this. They send tanks, armed gangs to kill people."
CNN cannot verify accounts of violence in Syria as the government has severely restricted access to the country by foreign journalists.
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