[An Nahar] A peace plan for Syria was in jeopardy on Monday as deadly fresh festivities raged after Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad's
Light of the Alawites...
government laid down conditions for it to pull troops and armor out of protest hubs.
Security forces killed 151 people across the country, among them more than 30 women and kiddies and four rebels, the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said.
Fifty-two people were killed in Homs, 45 in Aleppo
...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
, 33 in Hama, 13 in Idlib, six in the countryside around Damascus
...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world...
, one in Deir Ezzor and one in Daraa, the LCC said.
Tension also escalated with neighboring Turkey after shots across the border maimed two Syrians and a Turkish translator near a refugee camp hosting people who beat feet from forces loyal to Assad.
And a Lebanese television cameraman was rubbed out by Syrian troops manning the frontier with Leb which is also hosting thousands of Syrian refugees.
Under a peace deal brokered by U.N. and Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
envoy Kofi Annan
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo..., Syria's armed forces are supposed to withdraw from protest centers on Tuesday, with a complete end to fighting set for 48 hours later.
But the truce already appears in jeopardy after Damascus said it would only carry its side of the bargain if rebels first handed over written guarantees to stop fighting, a demanded rejected by rebel army chief Colonel Riad al-Asaad.
The 11th-hour demand came as weekend violence claimed almost 180 lives, most of them civilians, a surge in bloodshed that former U.N. chief Annan described as "unacceptable."
Making matters worse, fresh fighting killed another 155 people on Monday, including 19 soldiers, according to the LCC and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
At least 35 non-combatants were killed in regime forces' shelling of the village of Latamna, in the central Hama province, according to the Observatory.
"The regime had thought that it would control all areas (of rebels by April 10). As this is not happening, it is procrastinating to gain time," said the Observatory's Rami Abdel Rahman.
"If the Annan plan does not work, no other plan would, and Syria would plunge into a civil war," he told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Two others died of wounds after being smuggled into Turkey along with 15 others injured in an overnight clash with regime forces in the province of Aleppo, Anatolia news agency said citing a health official.
Tension heightened along the borders as shots fired from Syria maimed two Syrians and a Turkish translator, in the first case of Syrian fire from across the border hurting people on Turkish soil.
The incident, which happened on the eve of a visit by Annan to the refugee camps, prompted the Turkish foreign ministry to demand the Syrian mission in Ankara to "immediately halt the shooting," according to a diplomatic source.
Around 25,000 Syrian refugees are currently housed in camps in Turkey's three provinces bordering Syria, where civilians have been fleeing the deadly crackdown over the past year.
The Milliyet newspaper reported Monday that Turkey would consider using troops to secure humanitarian corridors in border areas should the number of Syrian refugees swell to above 50,000.
Lebanese Prime Minister
Najib Miqati, whose government is dominated by pro-Syrian parties, condemned the death Monday of Lebanese cameraman Ali Shaaban, who worked for the Beirut-based al-Jadeed television, killed by Syrian gunfire.Chinese foreign ministry front man Liu Weimin, meanwhile, urged the Syrian government to honor its truce commitments.
"China urges the Syrian government and parties concerned in Syria to seize the important opportunities, to honor their commitment of ceasefire and withdrawal of troops," said Liu.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem was due to hold talks Tuesday in Moscow with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. Ally Russia, along with Beijing, has blocked two U.N. Security Council draft resolutions condemning Damascus for its bloody crackdown.
On Sunday, the Syrian foreign ministry outlined the regime's new conditions in a statement.
"To say that Syria will pull back its forces from towns on April 10 is inaccurate, Kofi Annan having not yet presented written guarantees on the acceptance by armed terrorist groups of a halt to all violence," it said.
It said the regime was also awaiting written guarantees from the governments of Qatar, Soddy Arabia and Turkey "on stopping their funding to terrorist groups," referring to the regime's key regional critics.
Rebel army chief Colonel Asaad countered: "We are committed to the Annan plan... We will present our guarantees and our commitments to the international community, but not to this (Syrian) regime."
FSA front man Colonel Qassem Saadeddine reiterated on Monday the rebel force's readiness to cease fire on Tuesday "if the regime commits to respecting the terms of the (U.N.) plan."
After Turkey, Annan will travel to Syria's ally Iran, for a visit to Syrian refugee camps near the border, a Turkish diplomatic source said.
On Sunday, he urged Syria's government to respect its commitments on troop withdrawals.
"I remind the Syrian government of the need for full implementation of its commitments and stress that the present escalation of violence is unacceptable."
The Security Council has formally endorsed the Tuesday deadline for a ceasefire, but Damascus said a day later that the number of "terrorist acts" has risen since the deal was agreed with U.N.-Arab League envoy Annan.
Annan "said he would work to stop the violence, disarm gangs... initiate a comprehensive national dialogue with opposition movements," when he met Assad last month, the foreign ministry said.
La Belle France denounced as "unacceptable" the new Syrian demands.
The United Nations
...boodling on the grand scale...
says more than 9,000 people have been killed since anti-regime protests broke out in March 2011, while monitors put the number at more than 10,000.
On Monday, Human Rights Watch
... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world...
said security forces and pro-regime militias had executed more than 100 civilians and rebels in attacks on protest hubs since late 2011, urging any U.N. mission to Syria to collect evidence.