Deadly shelling overshadows Syria truce deadline

Syrian forces killed at least seven civilians on Tuesday as they pounded protest hubs and deployed reinforcements in apparent breach of a UN-backed peace plan, activists and monitors said.

The violence drew sharp condemnation from France and Britain, with even Russia urging its ally to act more decisively to implement the truce.

Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said in Moscow that Damascus had started to carry out the plan tabled by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan by pulling some troops out of certain provinces.

But France dismissed the claim as a "flagrant lie" and Britain, echoing the United States, said Syria was intensifying attacks on the opposition on the same day as the Annan plan was scheduled to begin taking effect.

A spokesman for the former UN chief, who was visiting Syrian refugee camps in Turkey, said Annan would send a letter to the Security Council later on Tuesday.

Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad shelled the villages of Marea and Hawr al-Nahr in northern Aleppo province, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Mortar rounds also struck old quarters of the flashpoint city of Homs, killing six people in Khaldiyeh neighbourhood while a seventh person was shot dead elsewhere in the central city.

A total of 17 people died on Tuesday across Syria, including six soldiers killed by gunmen in the northeastern province of Hassakeh, the Britain-based monitoring group said.

Regime forces also shot four people in the village of Kfar Zeita, in the central Hama province, but it was not clear if they were rebels or civilians.

Clashes between regime forces and rebels also rocked the district of Mzeyreeb, in the southern province of Daraa, the cradle of the dissent movement launched a year ago.

The Local Coordination Committees, one of the main opposition groups inside Syria, said "large military reinforcements" had arrived overnight on the eastern outskirts of Rastan, in the central province of Homs.

The report could not be verified due to curbs on media activity.

Under the peace plan it agreed with Annan, Syria is supposed to draw back its troops and armour from population centres on Tuesday ahead of a complete ceasefire on Thursday.

Activists say Syria has intensified its crackdown on dissent since the weekend when around 180 people were killed. On Monday, 105 died in what was one of the bloodiest days in Syria's crackdown on dissent.

But the Syrian foreign minister insisted his government had started implementing the Annan plan.

"We have already withdrawn military units from different Syrian provinces," Muallem told a news conference in Moscow after talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

Lavrov said Syria should be more decisive in fulfilling the Annan plan, which most notably calls on Syria to pull troops and weaponry out of cities hit by protests.

"We believe their actions could have been more active, more decisive when it comes to the implementation of the plan," he said.

Paris and London had harsh words for Syria.

"There is no evidence so far that the Assad regime has any intention of adhering to any agreement it makes," Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague said.

Syrian forces "have ruthlessly subjected whole communities to an inhumane campaign of shelling, forced expulsions and executions," he said in a statement.

"All those with influence over the Syrian leadership, including Russia, have a duty to back efforts to stop the violence and to isolate a regime which is as doomed as it is dangerous to the Syrian people," he added.

French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said Muallem's assertion that Syrian pulled troops out of some areas was "a new expression of a flagrant and unacceptable lie."

Syria was also rebuked for violence that spilled over into neighbouring Turkey and Lebanon on Monday, killing a Lebanese TV cameraman inside Lebanon and injuring four people in a Turkish camp for Syrian refugees.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Syria of a "clear violation" of common frontiers, while Lebanon demanded a probe into the cameraman's shooting.

Washington rebuked Syria's government for the border violence, and said Assad was showing no signs his government was sticking by the peace plan after signing up to the deal last week.

The Annan plan has been under a cloud since Sunday, when Damascus said it would keep its side of the bargain only if rebels gave written guarantees they would also stop fighting, a condition rejected out of hand by the rebels.

The main opposition Syrian National Council on Tuesday also said Syria's demands were "unacceptable."

The United Nations 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.

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