Syria agrees to Arab League plan to end violence

Syria has accepted the Arab League's plan to stop killing civilians The Syrian government accepted several measures suggested by the Arab League aimed at halting the violence sweeping the country, including the removal of tanks and armoured vehicles from the streets. The breakthrough was announced at an emergency meeting in Cairo on Wednesday, where the regional body gathered to discuss plans to ease the violence and end the unrest in Syria.
"The Arab League welcomes the Syrian government's agreement to the Arab plan," a statement by the Arab League said.
It "emphasised the need for the immediate, full and exact implementation of the articles in the plan".
However, reports say that Syrian army was still shelling residential houses
Two deaths were reported as the Syrian army shelled the Baba Amro neighborhood in the central city of Homs, the revolution council said on Thursday.
Machine-gun fire and explosions are supposed to have erupted inside a city central to Syria’s uprising as activists reported two grisly attacks have killed at least 20 people in the past 24 hours.
The announcement follows after eight months of bloodshed brought about by the government’s crackdown on protesting pro-democracy civilians.
Speaking after the meeting, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani said: "We are happy to have reached this agreement and we will be even happier when it is implemented immediately."
He read out a statement saying Syria had agreed on several points including a complete halt to violence, the release of prisoners, removing the military presence from cities and residential areas, and allowing the Arab League and media access to report on the situation.
He said the group would continue contacts between the Syrian government and the opposition "in preparation for a national dialogue within two weeks".
The US administration however repeated its call for Assad to step down.  
"Our position remains that President Assad has lost his legitimacy to rule and should step down," Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said.
"We support all international efforts that are aimed toward convincing the regime to stop attacking its own people."
Victoria Nuland, the US state department spokeswoman, said that the US administration was waiting to see the details of the Arab League agreement with Syria, but warned that Assad's government has a long track record of broken pledges.
"We're not going to judge them by their words. We're going to judge them by their actions,'' she told reporters in Washington.
Earlier in the day, Ban Ki-moon, the UN chief, demanded an immediate end to what he called the Syrian government's crackdown on civilian protesters.
"Killing civilians must stop immediately in Syria," he said in the Libyan capital Tripoli. "People have suffered too much for too long and it's an unacceptable situation."
The opposing Syrian National Council called on the Arab ministers to freeze Syria’s membership in the Arab League, and to provide international protection to the Syrian civilians. They also demanded recognition of the Council as a representative of the Syrian revolution, and the Syrian people, accusing the Syrian regime of "disregarding the Arabic efforts to stop the bloodshed."
Najib Al-Ghadban, a member of the opposition, said implementation of the initiative sponsored by the League would mean the end of the regime and Assad was not likely to let that happen.
`"What happened today is an attempt to buy more time,'' Al-Ghadban told reporters.
"This regime is notorious for maneuvering and for giving promises and not implementing any of them."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who is visiting the UAE, has expressed his support for the initiative, stressing at the same time his country's refusal to repeat a Libyan-style intervention in Syria.
"It is not a decision along the lines of Libya, but like Yemen, and this is the model of responsible behavior by the international community members who do not think of public relations campaigns, but of the future of the countries in the region," said Lavrov.
Syrian pro-democracy activists have reported the deaths of at least 21 people in the country. This includes 13 factory workers killed in a village northwest of Homs.
The alleged killings of those opposed to the Syrian government follow online claims that nine members of Assad's Alawite sect had been dragged from a bus and then shot by assailants in Homs province.
The claims were made by an activist out of Homs and on a social-networking site supportive of the Assad government.
Meanwhile, an activist group told Reuters that Syrian army deserters killed seven soldiers and eight members of the security forces and gunmen loyal to Assad in an apparent response to the killing of villagers earlier on Wednesday.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the deserters killed the soldiers through a bomb attack on a military convoy in Hama province. It said they also killed eight members of the security forces and pro-Assad gunmen in a separate attack.