Syria: 80 dead in violence Tuesday, despite a promise to implement the Annan Plan

Eighty people died in violence Tuesday in Syria, mostly civilians killed in the crackdown by the regime despite its promise to implement "immediate" peace plan of the international envoy Kofi Annan, according to an NGO.



Fifty-eight civilians were killed, including 20 in the region Taftanaz in Idleb province (northwest), in the shelling and firing heavy machine guns, as well as in fighting between soldiers and military dissidents, said the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (OSDH).



Fifteen civilians were also killed in military attacks against the city of Homs (center) and the rest in other cities, she said.



Eighteen soldiers were killed in Homs, Idleb and Deraa (south) in the fighting, and four deserters Idleb, the source said.



The regime has intensified its operations against rebel strongholds despite its promise to Annan to withdraw "immediately" its troops and tanks in urban centers so as to be completed April 10, said Monday the U.S. ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, whose country presides in April the Security Council.



Ms. Rice said that the Security Council should respond "quickly and forcefully" if the Syrian regime did not deliver.



The Annan plan calls for, besides the cessation of violence, providing humanitarian aid, the release of persons detained arbitrarily and freedom of movement for journalists.



The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, said for his part that the Syrian opposition "will not beat" the forces of President Bashar al-Assad.



"It's clear as crystal, even if they armed opposition to the teeth, it would not beat the Syrian army, we would then just a bloodbath for many years, mutual destruction" he said, during a visit to Baku, Azerbaijan.



Lavrov then renewed his criticism of the conference of "Friends of the Syrian people," saying that the Western allies and Arab Syrian opposition sought to prevent any negotiations with the regime of Bashar al-Assad.



The "Friends of the Syrian people" want "the opposition refuses negotiations, decisions are intended to fund, arm (the opponents) and to adopt new sanctions" against Damascus, he said.



Russia and China have blocked two resolutions at the UN condemning the repression of the protest movement in Syria, which claimed some 10,000 lives last year according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (OSDH).



Moscow and Beijing, however, support the peace plan of Kofi Annan.



The UN is sending a team to Syria to prepare the plan for deployment of observers supposed to monitor a possible cessation of hostilities.



Syria has been shaken over a year by a revolt against the regime that represses in the blood. The violence has claimed more than 10,000 dead, mostly civilians, according to OSDH.