Thousands of anti-regime protests went out in Damascus The Syrian government continued its offensives against rebel-held towns, as activists said 28 people were killed on Saturday. The news came as the US posted online satellite images of troop deployments that cast further doubt on whether the regime intends to comply with an internationally sponsored peace plan.
Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has accepted a ceasefire deadline brokered by international envoy Kofi Annan, which calls for his forces to pull out of towns and cities by Tuesday and for both government and rebels to lay down their arms by 6am local time on Thursday.
But the escalating violence of the past few days has fuelled accusations that Assad is rushing to stamp out as much of the year-old uprising against him as he can before next week\'s ceasefire.
The Syrian government said it has begun to withdraw forces ahead of the ceasefire but activists say no significant pullouts have taken place and troops, checkpoints and snipers remain in almost all major flashpoint towns and cities.
\"They are systematically trying to crush the revolt wherever they can and regardless of the human cost,\" said activist Mohammad Saeed in the Damascus suburb of Douma.
US ambassador to Syria Robert Ford said the Syrian government appears to have pulled back some of its forces from towns and cities but in other places has kept them in place or simply shifted around troops and armoured vehicles.
He said he was basing his information on satellite images before and after the alleged pullouts which were posted on the US Embassy Facebook page.
Arrests, sweeps and the artillery bombardment of opposition strongholds have continued, Ford\'s statement said.
\"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,\" the statement said.
Western leaders along with the Syrian opposition have cast doubt on Assad\'s intentions, suggesting he is playing for time and is not serious about the plan, which aims to pave the way for talks between the regime and the opposition on a political solution.
The government has launched offensives in several parts of the country in the past few days in a desperate attempt to crush the rebels.
The Local Coordination Committees said shelling by government forces on Saturday killed at least 24 people in the village of al-Latamneh in the suburbs of the restive city of Hama. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the number of deaths at 27. It said most were killed by shells fired as troops tried to storm al-Latamneh following clashes with defectors there over the past two days.
In the nearby province of Homs, activists also reported shelling of the rebel-held areas of Rastan, Deir Baalabeh and Qusair, where they said four people including a mother and her son were killed.
Violence was also reported in the northern province of Idlib. The offensive there has triggered a massive wave of refugees who crossed the border to Turkey in the past few days with horrific accounts of mass graves, massacres and burned-out homes.
Activists have reported about 100 dead in the villages of Taftanaz and Killi, both in Idlib, in recent days.
Tens of thousands of Syrian protesters took to the streets on Friday for anti-government rallies, activists said, as regime forces pounded rebel cities, earning a stern rebuke from UN chief Ban Ki-moon.
Annan has warned of \"alarming\" casualties as the government\'s year-long crackdown on dissent howed no signs of abating.
Ban denounced the latest violence, in comments conveyed by his spokesperson Martin Nesirky.
The UN chief \"deplores the assault by the Syrian authorities against innocent civilians... despite the commitments by the government of Syria to cease all use of heavy weapons in population centres,\" said Nesirky.
\"The April 10 timeline to fulfil the government\'s implementation of its commitments, as endorsed by the Security Council, is not an excuse for continued killing,\" Ban added.
\"Such actions violate the consensus position of the Security Council\" which backed the six-point peace plan drawn up by Annan and the deadline he agreed with Assad, he said, according to Nesirky.
The Security Council passed one statement backing Annan\'s peace plan and on Thursday agreed a second \"presidential statement\" formally endorsing the April 10 limit for Syrian troops and big guns to be pulled out of cities.
Russia and China, which blocked two Council resolutions on Syria, have signed up to the new demands.
Ban said he was \"gravely concerned\" at the worsening humanitarian crisis in Syria, adding that the growing number of refugees pouring over the border into neighbouring countries was \"alarming.\"
Ankara urged the United Nations and international community to reinforce efforts to aid Syrian refugees after a record 2,800 people poured across the border in less than two days, taking the number in Turkey to nearly 24,000.
Ban \"demands that the government of Syria immediately and unconditionally cease all military actions against the Syrian people,\" his spokesman added.
But Syria said on Friday that the number of what it calls \"terrorist acts\" had risen since the deal was reached with Annan.
At the same time, Damascus lashed out at the UN high commissioner for human rights, accusing her of turning a blind eye to \"terrorism\" funded from abroad.
Damascus has also demanded a written commitment that the opposition will not seek to exploit the troop withdrawal to make territorial gains.
A UN advance team headed by a Norwegian general had arrived in Syria to discuss the eventual deployment of a UN supervising mission, Annan\'s spokesman said on Thursday.
The United Nations says more than 9,000 people have been killed in the regime\'s crackdown on the year-old uprising. Activists say more than 10,000 people have died.