DAMASCUS - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad announced on Tuesday parliamentary elections for May 7, as more than 35 people were killed in violence across Syria on Tuesday, including 22 members of the security forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“Twelve members of the security services who headed for the town of Dael to carry out arrests were killed at 10:00 am (0800 GMT) when their vehicle was ambushed by a group of armed deserters,” said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
It was the second deadly ambush the same day on the military, which has led a year-long crackdown on dissent that the United Nations says has cost more than 8,000 lives.
Meanwhile a pro-government Syrian newspaper reported that regime forces had recaptured the rebel stronghold of Idlib in “record time.”
“A major operation launched three days ago in Idlib... ended in record time with army units wrapping up search operations during which dozens of armed men and fugitives were killed,” Al-Watan newspaper said.
Activists acknowledged the army had deployed in the city but said they faced pockets of resistance by rebel fighters.
The announcement came as UN-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan said he was expecting a response from Assad Tuesday to “concrete proposals” to halt Syria’s bloodshed and Russia stepped in with a proposal for international observers.
State news agency SANA said Assad, who has proposed a programme of reforms in the face of an unprecedented revolt, has set May 7 as the date for legislative elections under a new constitution passed in February.
The elections would be the third such polls since Assad came to power in 2000, but the first under a multi-party system as authorised under the new law.
Annan, speaking to reporters in Ankara after meeting with Syria’s opposition, said he was “expecting to hear from Syrian authorities today since I left some concrete proposals for them to consider.”
He was referring to weekend meetings in Damascus with Assad, after which he had expressed optimism the crisis could be resolved peacefully but warned the situation in Syria was at a “dangerous” level.
“Once I receive their answer we will know how to react,” the former UN chief said. “Let me say that the killings and the violence must cease.”
Against that backdrop, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said on Tuesday that around 30,000 Syrians had fled to neighbouring countries and another 200,000 had been displaced inside the country, quoting Syrian Red Crescent data.
Human Rights Watch said Tuesday Syria has planted landmines near its borders with both countries, along routes used by refugees fleeing the country.
“The Syrian regime is trying to prevent people from going in and from fleeing the country,” said Nadim Houry, deputy director of the group’s Middle East and North Africa division.
Annan also said he had a “useful meeting” in Ankara with six representatives of the opposition Syrian National Council headed by Burhan Ghalioun, whom he said had “promised their full cooperation.”
Ghalioun, whose group last week rejected a call from Annan for dialogue with Assad’s regime, said the opposition’s priority was for a peaceful outcome to the year-long conflict.
Russia, accused of having shielded its ally Syria, said Tuesday it will press Damascus to accept international monitors who could observe the implementation of a “simultaneous” ceasefire between government troops and armed rebels.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia was discussing the proposal with both the Arab League and at the United Nations, where a Security Council ministerial meeting debated the Syrian crisis on Monday.
“The objective is for both sides to understand that there is an independent observer watching how they meet demands,” Lavrov told reporters in Moscow.
“We must not have a situation in which the government is required to leave the cities and villages while the armed groups are not made to do the same,” said the Russian foreign minister.
Russia and China vetoed two past Security Council draft resolutions condemning Assad for the violence and expressed reservations about a new US-backed version of the text.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, meanwhile, announced that a second “Friends of Syria” conference would take place in Istanbul on April 2, following an initial forum in Tunis on February 24.
In the latest violence, pro-government newspaper Al-Watan said regime forces recaptured the rebel stronghold of Idlib after several days of shelling, while activists said pockets of resistance remained from rebel fighters.
Rebels killed 22 members of the security forces in two separate ambushes on Tuesday in the southern region of Daraa and the northwestern province of Idlib, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Since Frid, the army has carried out an offensive in the mountainous region near the Turkish border, in a bid to seize control of the city of Idlib and other towns of the province where rebels are based.
The Observatory said at least 14 civilians were killed in the central province of Homs, in Idlib, Aleppo in the north and the Damascus region town of Douma, while another soldier died in Aleppo.
Despite international pressure and growing clamour for foreign intervention, Assad’s regime has pushed on with its brutal crackdown on a year-long revolt that has killed more than 8,500 people, mostly civilians, according to activists.
On Monday, the opposition denounced the “massacre” of 47 women and children in the flashpoint central city of Homs. The regime blamed the killings on “armed terrorist gangs.”
The grisly murders in Homs, Syria’s third-largest city, came less than two weeks after regime troops stormed its rebel Baba Amr neighbourhood, following a month-long bombardment in which activists say 700 people were killed.
Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi called for an international probe into “crimes” committed against civilians in Syria.
“Media reports about the horrible pictures concerning crimes committed against innocent civilians in Homs and Idlib and other parts of Syria can be described as crimes against humanity,” Arabi said in a statement.
“There must be an international, independent probe to reveal the truth about what is happening and identify those responsible for these crimes and refer them to justice,” he added.