Syrian troops killed seven people in the flashpoint central city of Homs on Thursday, just a day after Damascus pledged to withdraw its forces from protest centres under an Arab League plan to end the bloodshed. Activists called for mass demonstrations to test the genuineness of the government’s commitment to the peace blueprint, voicing scepticism about its readiness to rein in a crackdown that the UN says has cost more than 3,000 lives since mid-March. London and Washington said despite Damascus’s agreement to the Arab League plan after weeks of prevarication, they still believed President Bashar al-Assad must heed the demands of anti-government protesters and step down. Seven people on Thursday died, while “Heavy machinegun fire is still being heard,” the Britain-based watchdog added in a statement received in Nicosia.
Under the hard-won deal announced at a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo late on Wednesday, the Syrian government is supposed to withdraw its troops from all protest centres, although the text set no timetable. The blueprint agreed by Syria provides for a “complete halt to the violence to protect civilians.” The Local Coordination Committees (LCC), which organised the anti-government protests on the ground, said it doubted “the integrity of the Syrian regime’s acceptance of the points suggested by the Arab League’s initiative.”
It called on Syrians to “validate whether armed forces… have been withdrawn from the cities and towns, and whether violence has been stopped, detainees have been released, Arab and international media correspondents have been allowed in the country, and if a dialogue has been made possible.” “This validation should come through maintaining all forms of peaceful protest,” it said.
