Al-Assad & Nabil Al-Arabi Syrian security forces backed by troops killed at least 27 people across the country on Sunday, the Syrian Revelation’s General Commission said.The bloodshed continued despite President Bashar al-Assad's reported agreement to a roadmap of political reforms proposed by Arab countries and delivered to Damascus on Saturday by Arab League Chief Nabil al-Arabi, Alarabiya reported.
Sunday’s security crackdown appeared to focus on the rebellious city of Homs, where tanks heavily shelled two neighborhood killing 18 people.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a young man was killed by gunfire at a security checkpoint in the northwestern village of Khan Sobol near the city of Idlib
In the south, three civilians were killed and 12 wounded by security forces firing on demonstrators Saturday night outside the city council near Nimr, in Daraa province, the Observatory said.
It added that the bodies of two brothers, an officer who defected, were turned over to their families in the northwestern village of Rami.
And the body of a militant, Ghiyath Matar, who played a key role in organising anti-regime demonstrations, were given to his family, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch, which cited activists.
Matar, who was arrested September 6, died of torture, the international watchdog said. He had bruises on the chest and signs of injuries to the face, according to activists.
Sunday’s bloodshed came despite the head of the Arab League, Nabil el-Araby's visit to Damascus on Saturday and reaching an "agreement on reforms" in Syria during talks with President Bashar al-Assad.
"We have reached agreement on steps to carry out the reforms, [and] the elements will be submitted to the council of the Arab League," which meets in Cairo on Monday, El-Araby said after the meeting.
El-Araby told journalists in Egypt that he had urged Assad to "speed up reform plans through a timetable that will make every Syrian citizen feel that he has moved to a new stage".
"I focused on the importance of an open national dialogue that encompasses all personalities on the basis of national reconciliation, in which the Arab League plays a main role," Elaraby told journalists on his return to Egypt from Syria. He did not give details.
The state-run Syrian news agency SANA said el-Araby had "affirmed the Arab League's rejection of all forms of foreign interference in Syrian internal affairs" and that the two leaders had agreed on "a number of practical steps for speeding up the reform process in Syria".
According to information leaked to the media earlier this week about el-Araby's visit, he was to call for the withdrawal of troops and tanks from Syrian cities and towns and to push for elections to be held within three years. Assad should declare his “commitment to making the transition towards a pluralistic government and use his powers to speed up reforms and announce multi-candidate elections... for 2014, when his current mandate ends,” says the document. The council of the Arab League is due to meets on Monday.
Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has increased pressure on Russia to support a UN Security Council resolution
against the Syrian regime. He describes the lack of such a clear statement of condemnation as a "scandal".
Juppe said during a visit to the Australian capital Canberra on Sunday that Russia and France remained divided over Syria following talks between French and Russian foreign and defense ministers in Moscow last week.
Veto-wielding Russia wants Syrian President Bashar Assad's government to halt its violence against protesters and to expedite reforms.
But Juppe says "the regime has lost its legitimacy" and "it's too late to implement a program of reform.'"