More violence in Syria amid Arab League diplomacy

Syrian anti-regime demonstrators wave flags in the Khalidiya neighbourhood of the flashpoint city of Homs on January 20, 2012.

• NEW: Government says terrorists strike vehicle carrying prisoners
• The Arab League is holding a meeting Sunday to discuss is findings
• Thousands have died in the Syrian uprising

Damascus, Syria (CNN) -- Arab League diplomats working to end violence across Syria prepared to discuss extending its monitoring mission this weekend.

A few Arab League members were to meet Saturday, led by a Qatari representative, before the full body meets Sunday in Cairo to discuss the monitors' final findings.

The Arab League has called on President Bashar al-Assad's regime to stop violence against civilians, free political detainees, remove tanks and weapons from cities and allow outsiders, including the international news media, to travel freely around Syria.

While activists blame the violence on the government, the regime says terrorists have been responsible for the bloodshed. On Saturday, both sides reported the deadly bombing of a vehicle carrying prisoners in Idlib province, in northwestern Syria.

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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition activist group, said the blast killed at least 11 civilians. The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported that "an armed terrorist group" was responsible for the attack, killing 14 people and wounding 26 others.

The purpose of the Arab League's month-long mission was to determine whether the government was adhering to an agreement to end the violence. The mission was scheduled to end Thursday but the group was negotiating an extension.

The head of the Arab League mission, Sudanese Lt. Gen. Mohammad Ahmad al-Dabi, will submit a report from the field and the monitors' recommendations to the full body Sunday. Al-Dabi will meet with Secretary- General Nabil el-Araby in Cairo, SANA reported.

Arab League official Ali Jaroush said the mission has gained momentum and that there is "a general inclination" to extend it for another month, SANA reported.

For more than 10 months, Syria has been engulfed an anti-government public uprising and a brutal security crackdown against protesters. The United Nations last month estimated well over 5,000 deaths since mid-March. Opposition groups estimate more than 6,000 people have died.

The human rights observatory said loyalist forces using heavy automatic weapons and army defectors battled in the Idlib town of Karf Nabl in the Zawiya Mountains.

And in the nearby village of Ibleen, security forces made a wave of arrests and detained four relatives of Hussein Harmoush, a founder of the Free Syria Army -- the anti-regime resistance force made up of military defectors.

Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_world/~3/Yjnpoyf3F3A/index.html

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