Syria agrees to Arab monitor plan while tanks shell defectors

Iraq's foreign minister said on Thursday that Damascus had agreed to a protocol on sending a monitoring mission to Syria to assess the situation on the ground after an eight-month crackdown on protests against President Bashar al-Assad's rule.    

"Syria has agreed fully to the protocol," the Iraqi minister, Hoshiyar Zebari, told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo to discuss Syria and to consider imposing sanctions.    

He said the protocol would be signed by Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad, after the Arab League had previously rejected Damascus' request for amendments. Zebari also said Arab ministers agreed on the need for a complete halt to violence in Syria.    

Meanwhile, Syrian tanks bombarded hideouts of army defectors near the central town of Rastan, a resident and activists said, two months after the authorities said they had regained control of the important region on the Damascus-Aleppo highway.      

Activists said around 50 tanks and armoured vehicles fired anti-aircraft guns and machineguns into farmland on the edge of Rastan, 20 km (12 miles) north of the restive city of Homs.    

The town was scene at the end of October of the first major fighting between troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and army defectors in the eight-month uprising against his rule.  
-Reuters