By David Enders, McClatchy Newspapers –
BEIRUT—Contradicting reports from the United Nations last week that Syria’s government had agreed to a cease-fire that would have gone into effect on Thursday, the Syrian government said Sunday it would not withdraw troops from restive areas unless it received “written agreements” from armed rebels dedicated to the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al Assad.
Such an agreement appears unlikely, as the groups of Syrian army defectors and volunteers who took up arms against Assad’s government last year are loosely organized and highly localized. Although many have adopted the name of the Free Syrian Army, few appear to have contact or coordination with the defected military officers who claim to lead the armed resistance from Turkey.
Many of the armed groups have said their mission is to protect the peaceful demonstrators who have been calling for an end to Assad’s rule since March 2011, though some have increasingly attacked Syrian armor and checkpoints as the conflict has increasingly taken on the appearance of guerilla warfare.
Syrians activists say that full withdrawal of troops from Syrian cities, towns and villages would result in huge demonstrations in support of Assad’s ouster, a sentiment that appears to have increased as violence has grown in past months.
“All the people with the revolution who are against … Assad will go into the streets,” said Samer al-Husain, an anti-government activist in the besieged central Syrian city of Hama.
Al-Husain said there were general strikes in some villages around Hama on Sunday after the deaths of more than 70 FSA fighters and civilians in the nearby village of Latamneh on Saturday. But despite the presence of the Syrian military, demonstrations had not stopped.
“The regime can never control the city; they can control it during the day, but at night the Free Syrian Army attacks. Two days ago there were attacks against many of the army positions,” al-Husain said. “There were many martyrs from the Free Syrian Army.”
Funerals were held Sunday for victims of what anti-government activists said were massacres on Saturday in villages outside Hama and villages outside Aleppo, the country’s largest city. Activists reported the deaths of more than 100 civilians across the country on Saturday, mostly from shelling by government troops.
According to SANA, the Syrian government news agency, Syrian Foreign Minister Jihad Makdessi released a statement explaining that Kofi Annan, the United Nations’ special representative to Syria, had misinterpreted Assad’s agreement to withdraw troops from Syrian cities Tuesday.
“Makdessi said that Syria has undertaken steps to show good faith concerning Annan’s plan and informed him of them, adding that Syria has drawn his attention to the escalation in violence by the armed terrorist groups as it announced agreement to Annan’s mission,” the SANA website said. “Annan has not offered written guarantees to the Syrian government that the armed groups agreed to stop violence, nor has he offered guarantees that Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey will commit to stop funding and arming terrorist groups.”
