Syria defies cease-fire with new attacks

BY ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY

AND ZEINA KARAM

The Associated Press

BEIRUT -- Syrian troops defied a UN-brokered cease-fire plan yesterday, launching fresh attacks on rebellious areas, but special envoy Kofi Annan said there was still time to salvage a truce that he described as the only chance for peace.

More than a year into the Syrian uprising, the international community has nearly run out of options for halting the slide toward civil war. Yesterday, Annan insisted his peace initiative remains "very much alive" -- in part because there is no viable alternative.

The UN has ruled out any military intervention of the type that helped bring down Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, and several rounds of sanctions and other attempts to isolate President Bashar Assad have done little to stop the bloodshed.

"If you want to take . . . [the plan] off the table, what will you replace it with?" Annan told reporters in Hatay, Turkey, where he toured a camp sheltering Syrian refugees.

Facing a deadline Tuesday to pull back its tanks and troops, the government had said it was withdrawing from certain areas, including the rebellious central province of Homs. France said the claims were a "flagrant and unacceptable lie." Activists said there was no sign of a pullback.

Homs residents reported some of the heaviest shelling in months.

"Hundreds of mortar rounds and shells were falling around all day," Tarek Badrakhan told The Associated Press. He said a makeshift hospital housing wounded people and dozens of corpses was destroyed in the shelling.

In a letter to the UN Security Council, obtained by AP, Annan said Syria has not pulled troops and heavy military equipment out of cities and towns, and that the regime's last-minute conditions put the entire cease-fire at risk.

The council strongly backed Annan, with all 15 members -- including Syrian allies China and Russia -- approving a press statement expressing "deep concern" at the failure by Damascus to withdraw its troops and heavy equipment.