Assad regime says it is withdrawing troops

UNITED NATIONS, April 5 (UPI) -- The Syrian government said Thursday it withdrew troops from some communities as part of a peace plan pushed by special envoy Kofi Annan, his spokesman said.

The government statement could not be confirmed, CNN reported, and the United Nations was looking into it.

Syria said it was withdrawing troops from some regions as opposition activists reported government offensives still battered towns and cities, killing nearly 40 people Thursday.

President Bashar Assad's regime has pledged to withdraw its troops from cities by Tuesday to comply with the peace plan proffered by Annan, a former U.N. secretary-general appointed as a U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria.

Opponents of the Assad regime and outside experts said that the president has taken few concrete steps so far to implement the plan, creating doubt about its viability, CNN said.

World leaders have been trying to end the bloody government crackdown against protesters who have been calling for Assad's ouster since March 2011.

On Thursday, Syria claimed soldiers were pulled from Daraa, Idlib and Zabadani, Annan spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said.

Meanwhile, activists said at least 37 people died Thursday in and around Homs, Idlib, Hama and Douma, a Damascus suburb.

The peace plan calls for authorities to end troop movement toward populated centers and stop the use of heavy weapons. It also urges both sides cease fire and meet to end the crisis.

Fawzi's comments came as a U.N. advance team traveled to Damascus to plan a cease-fire monitoring operation.

"We haven't really settled on the final figure" of monitors, Fawzi said, adding that "the numbers I've been reading in the media are 200 to 250."

The planning team "will talk to a range of people" in the Syrian government, military and security operations, he said.

Asked if the advance team would communicate with opposition leaders, Fawzi said, "No."

"There will be a 48-hour cease fire after April 10," he said. "We hope monitoring mission will be in place [to verify the cease-fire], but it has to be determined by Security Council," he said.

Meanwhile, witnesses said a military helicopter fired rockets against the town of Taftanaz in Idlib province Thursday, sending another wave of refugees to neighboring Turkey, CNN reported.

More than 1,600 Syrians have arrived in Turkey in the last 24 hours, Turkish officials said, bringing the number of Syrians in Turkey to more than 21,000 people.

The Security Council was to vote as early as Thursday on a U.S.-drafted "presidential statement," written at Annan's request, that holds the Assad regime to its pledged Tuesday withdrawal, diplomatic officials said Wednesday.

The statement, drafted with British and French cooperation, would demand the regime "immediately and verifiably" live up to its commitments and would insist the opposition halt its armed violence within 48 hours of the regime's "complete implementation" of its withdrawal, the officials said.

The United Nations says more than 9,000 people have been killed in the increasingly violent uprising that began in March 2011.

Assad's government told the United Nations Wednesday its official death count of the uprising's first 12 months was 6,044, of which 2,566 were regime soldiers and police.