Syria's state news agency said
Assad had granted an amnesty for "crimes committed in the context of the
events since March 15, 2011, until January 15, 2012". The amnesty would
run to the end of the month, covering army deserters and people held for having
unauthorized arms or violating laws on peaceful protest.
Addounia television said Arab League monitors
discussed implementing the amnesty with Damascus police on Sunday. They also
visited a hospital in the coastal city of Banias.
Assad has issued several amnesties since
the start of protests, but opposition groups say thousands of people remain
behind bars and that many have been tortured or abused.
The Avaaz campaign group said on Dec. 22
that at least 69,000 people had been detained since the start of the uprising,
of whom 32,000 had been released.
Freeing detainees was one of the terms of
an Arab peace plan, which also called for an end to bloodshed, the withdrawal
troops and tanks from the streets and a political dialogue.
The movement to end more than four decades
of Assad family rule began with largely peaceful demonstrations, but after
months of violence by the security forces, army deserters and insurgents
started to fight back, prompting fears of civil war.
State media and an opposition group said at
least five textile workers were killed when bomb hit their in the northern
province of Idlib on Sunday. SANA news agency blamed an "armed terrorist
group" for carrying out the attack.
The Arab League has not received any official request or suggestion to send Arab troops to Syria, an Arab representative to the Cairo-based League told Reuters on Sunday.
Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, said on Saturday that Arab troops may have to step in to halt the bloodshed in Syria since the start of protests against President Bashar al-Assad in March.
"There is no official suggestion to send Arab troops to Syria at the current time there has been no Arab or a non-Arab agreement on a military intervention in Syria for the time being," the representative said.
There is little appetite in the West for any Libya-style intervention in Syria, although France has talked of a need to set up zones to protect civilians there.
Reuters