France Press

DAMASCUS: Syria showed no let up in assaults on protest hubs Wednesday as peace envoy Kofi Annan said there was still a chance to salvage a peace plan for a complete halt to hostilities within 24 hours.
 
Activist group the Local Coordination Committees said explosions and heavy gunfire were heard early morning in Damascus and southern Daraa province, cradle of a 13-month uprising against President Bashar Assad's rule.
 
Shells and rockets were fired into Khaldiyeh, a stronghold for regime opponents who have taken up arms, as well as other parts of the flashpoint city of Homs, in central Syria, the LCC reported.
 
At least seven civilians were killed in Homs on Tuesday, the deadline for Assad's government to withdraw its troops and heavy weapons from population centers under the peace plan it agreed with Annan.
 
On the northern border, shots fired by Syrian forces struck a Syrian refugee camp inside Turkey early Wednesday, Turkish media reported, two days after shooting from Syria wounded four Syrians and two Turks on Turkish soil.
 
Annan, speaking on a visit to Tehran, said however that the situation in Syria should be "much improved" by Thursday's deadline for a ceasefire if both sides in the conflict respect his six-point peace plan.
 
"If everyone respects, I think by six o'clock on Thursday the 12th -- six o'clock in the morning on Thursday the 12th -- we a should see a much improved situation on the ground," the UN-Arab League envoy told a news conference.
 
The government in Damascus had given "further clarifications" over how it would implement its side of the plan, the former UN secretary general said.
 
"What they mean and want is an assurance that the other forces, the opposition forces, would also stop the fighting so that we could see cessation of all the violence," he said.
 
Annan said his team has "had positive answers from them" and that "governments with influence" had also been approached to ensure that all sides in the conflict respect the ceasefire.
 
Annan arrived in Tehran from Turkey. Iran is Syria's principal ally in the Middle East and has given political and material support to Assad's regime.
 
Turkey, a one-time ally of the Damascus regime, has called for Assad to step down to resolve the bloody uprising that has killed more than 9,000 people since it started a year ago, according to UN estimates.
 
Fifty-two people, including 28 civilians, were killed on Tuesday alone, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. They included 19 security force members and five rebels, bringing the toll since the weekend to at least 337.
 
Syria's government had said Tuesday it was abiding by the plan to withdraw its forces, but Annan accused it of pulling troops from some areas and moving them elsewhere.
 
"I again appeal to the Syrian government and the Syrian parties to cease violence in accordance (with) the plan," Annan said in Turkey Tuesday. "I believe there should be no preconditions for stopping violence."
 
Annan insisted his peace plan was not dead, however.
 
"We still have time between now and the 12th to stop the violence and I appeal to all concerned, the government in the first place, and the opposition forces," he said.
 
"The plan has not been implemented according to the schedule that we laid out... but it does not mean that it cannot be implemented."
 
At the same time, the Free Syrian Army, a ragtag rebel force of mainly army defectors, warned it would resume attacks if the regime offensive does not stop.
 
"If (the regime) does not stop shelling and not withdraw tanks, we will intensify our military operations and launch attacks," FSA spokesman Colonel Kassem Saadeddine told AFP.
 
Despite the faltering peace plan, the UN Security Council called on Assad to adhere to Thursday's 6:00 am (0300 GMT) deadline for a complete ceasefire.
 
Susan Rice, US ambassador to the United Nations, warned that the Security Council faces a looming "moment of truth" on Syria.
 
The "logical next step" would be to increase pressure through "collective action," she said.
 
France's Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said he wants "new measures" by the council after Thursday. Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague said the Security Council should refer Assad to the International Criminal Court. Turkey, struggling with a wave of Syrian refugees, has also demanded action.
 
Russia and China vetoed two resolutions on Syria because they hinted at sanctions. They have however signed up to less weighty statements which backed Annan's plan and his deadlines to Assad.