Fighting rages in Syria less than 24 hours to deadline

(Reuters) – Syria’s conflict spilled over into Turkey on Monday and government forces battled rebel

fighters near the border in clashes that appeared to doom a ceasefire less than 24 hours before a U.N.-brokered deadline for

a Syrian army pull-back.

Under a deal brokered by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, Syria is to begin withdrawing troops from around urban centers by

Tuesday, paving the way for a truce to start 48 hours later.

But the prospect of a ceasefire looked increasingly dim,

with no let-up in violence around the country where forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have battled to crush a popular

revolt against his rule for more than a year.

In a last-minute move, Assad has demanded written guarantees from

opposition fighters that they put down their weapons, prompting Turkey’s Deputy Foreign Minister Naci Koru to say that the

April 10 deadline was now effectively void.

“April 10 has become void. After Kofi Annan’s visit tomorrow (to Turkey)

a new stage will start,” state-run broadcaster TRT quoted Koru as saying on its website.

European Union foreign policy

chief Catherine Ashton said through a spokesman that “adding new conditions at this stage is totally

unacceptable”.

Less than 24 hours before the deadline, fierce fighting raged on the ground, with two Syrian refugees

and a Turkish translator wounded by gunfire from Syria at a refugee camp on Turkish territory, according to Turkish

officials.

It was not clear if the camp was deliberately targeted or hit by stray bullets.

In clashes inside

Syria near the Turkish border, rebels killed at least six members of the Syrian security forces and customs officials,

according to the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

It said the fighting took place in the village of

Salama, between the Syrian town of Azaz and the Turkish town of Kilis. Eight rebel gunmen were wounded in the

fighting.

The state news agency SANA said nine law-enforcement members and a civilian were shot dead and 13 wounded in

al-Sukkari region in Aleppo.

State forces had gone “to protect a protest gathering after several attacks on such

gatherings” were wrongly blamed on army and police, SANA said. They were shot down from all sides.

The agency said

security forces on Sunday foiled infiltration attempts of two armed groups from

Lebanon.

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For graphic on fighting link.reuters.com/zan47s

For Interactive timeline link.reuters.com/pyt37s

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In Damascus province, four soldiers were killed in the bombing of a convoy as Syrian forces swept villages

arresting opposition suspects. Two policemen were killed in clashes with gunmen in the city of Aleppo, the British-based

Observatory said.

Colonel Qassem Saad al-Deen, spokesman for the Free Syrian Army in Syria, said on Sunday that at

least 1,000 people had been killed during the past week, most of them civilians.

DEADLINE

Western powers

suspect Assad is using the time since he met Annan in Damascus a month ago to mount a military offensive aimed at clearing

the country of rebel strongholds.

Since the outbreak of the uprising in March 2011, Syria has blamed the unrest on

foreign-backed terrorists determined to use violence to destabilize the government. Assad, who has ruled for 10 years since

succeeding his late father, Hafez al-Assad, has laid out his own reform program but it has been dismissed by the

opposition.

The severity of Assad’s crackdown, in which the United Nations says 9,000 people have been killed, has

triggered Western condemnation and sanctions, as the Syrian economy ground to a halt and its pound halved in

value.

Under the U.N. plan, the Syrian government and opposition must stop fighting at 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) on April 12,

if Damascus meets its deadline 48 hours earlier to pull back troops from cities and cease using heavy weapons.

Russia

and China – who have so far sided with Assad

– urged both sides to stop fighting and give Annan’s peace plan a chance to work.

Reports from anti-Assad activists

say the army is trying to seize back swathes of northwestern Idlib province from rebel control, using tanks and helicopters

and driving terrified villagers north and west to the Turkish frontier.

The Observatory on Sunday reported shooting

and shelling in a number of cities. At least 21 people were killed in Homs, Deraa, Idlib, Deir al-Zor and Hama province, and

at least 12 government soldiers died in clashes, it said.

Syria has placed tight restrictions on media access, making

it hard to verify witness accounts.

Russia, Assad’s most important ally, stopped short of pressing him to rein

in his army.

“Attempts to force a solution on Syria from outside will lead only to an escalation of tension,” Russian

Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said. “Everything must follow from respect for Syria’s sovereignty, and violence

must be stopped.”

Syria on Sunday put up an obstacle to implementation of the truce on Sunday by saying it wanted

written guarantees from opposition forces.

“Syria has a plan for a military pullback already in place and being

implemented, but completing and achieving the main goal would definitely require the guarantees from the other side and those

supporting them to abide by the terms of calm,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said in a statement.

A rebel

commander said this was just a smokescreen.

“The regime will not implement this plan. This plan will fail,” the Free

Syrian Army (FSA) chief Colonel Riad al-Asaad told Reuters. “We have given our word that if the regime commits to the plan

then we will too.”

“We will never hand over our weapons,” he added.

(Additional reporting by Tulay Karadeniz,

Jonathon Burch in Turkey,

Steve Gutterman in Moscow, Michael Martina in Beijing, Justyna Pawlak in Brussels.

Editing by Maria Golovnina)