Syrian rebel commanders split on ceasefire deadline

DHAKA: A commander in the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) has given the government of President Bashar al-Assad a 48-hour deadline to observe a UN ceasefire.

The FSA’s Colonel Qassim Saadeddine in Homs said if there was no response by Friday lunchtime the FSA would consider itself ‘no longer bound’ by the plan.

But the FSA head, General Riyad Asaad, later denied the deadline existed, reports BBC.

Instead, he urged peace envoy Kofi Annan to issue a statement declaring the peace plan to have failed.

In the latest of a string of bloody incidents, UN observers have confirmed the discovery of 13 shooting victims near the city of Deir el-Zour.

The find came only days after the massacre of more than 100 people, many of them children, in the town of Houla.

Col Saadeddine’s ultimatum, citing the Houla massacre, was given in a video released online, in which he said the government had to ‘implement an immediate ceasefire, withdraw its troops, tanks and artillery from Syrian cities and villages’.

‘It should also allow immediate humanitarian aid to all affected areas and free all detainees... The regime should also enter into a real and serious negotiation through the United Nations to hand over power to the Syrian people’, he went on.

BDST: 1756 HRS, MAY 31, 2012

Edited by Robab Rosan, Cultural Affairs Editor