Anti-government protesters carry coffins during the funeral of protesters killed in earlier clashes in Damascus suburb of Zabadani on Thursday.
The Arab League delegates arrive in the midst of a new international uproar over activist reports that government troops killed more than 200 people in two days. Neighboring Turkey condemned President Bashar Assad over the “bloodbath.”
The United Nations says more than 5,000 people have been killed as Syria has sought to put down the uprising.
In its first official comment on U.N. human rights reports alleging a brutal government crackdown, the Syrian government sent a letter to the U.N. Security Council and Human Rights Council Thursday saying more than 2,000 soldiers and members of the security forces have been killed. It offered no documentation to back up the claim.
In the letter, it said the U.N. reports were “politicized, unprofessional and selective” and ignored reports by the government detailing the violations being committed by terrorist groups in Syria.
U.N. officials have said their death toll includes Syrian military and security forces but complain that they are unable to verify the numbers because they are banned from entering Syria.
The Arab League monitors would be the first to be allowed into the country since the uprising began in March.
The opposition suspects Assad's agreement to allow the monitors in after weeks of stalling is only a tactic to buy time and ward off a new round of international sanctions and condemnation.
“The Syrian regime has exploited signing the Arab League initiative to escalate the brutal military campaign against revolting towns and cities,” said Burhan Ghalioun, leader of the Syrian National Council, Syria's main opposition group.
In a statement, Ghalioun called on the U.N. to “urgently intervene” to stop the bloodshed, saying the Arab peace initiative was no longer enough.
Activists called for nationwide protests on Friday against the observer mission. “Protocol of death, a license to kill,” was the slogan for the planned protests, a reference to the protocol of the Arab League plan signed by Syria this week.
In addition to the monitors, the Arab League plan calls for Syria to halt its crackdown, open talks with the opposition, withdraw military forces from city streets and allow in human rights workers and journalists. The 22-member Arab League has also suspended Syria's membership and imposed economic and diplomatic sanctions.
Fresh raids and gunfire by government forces on Thursday killed at least 19 people, most of them in the central city of Homs and northern Idlib province, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees.
Activists accused government troops of a “massacre” on Tuesday in Kfar Owaid, a village in the rugged mountains near Syria's northern border with Turkey. A witness and activist groups said military forces surrounded about 110 unarmed civilians and trapped them in a valley, then proceeded to systematically kill all of them in an hours-long barrage with tanks, bombs and gunfire. No one survived the onslaught, the activists said.
Turkey, which before the uprising was a close ally of Syria, said the violence flew in the face of the spirit of the Arab League deal that Syria signed and raises doubts about the regime's true intentions.
“We strongly condemn the Syrian leadership's policies of oppression against its own people, which are turning the country into a bloodbath,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said. It added that that no administration “can come out a winner from a struggle against its own people.”
Germany's Foreign Ministry summoned the Syrian ambassador to protest the violence, asking that “all those within the security forces who are responsible for the cruelties be held to account.”
On Wednesday, the Obama administration said it was “deeply disturbed” by Tuesday's attack on Kfar Owaid and accused the government of continuing to “mow down” its people. The French Foreign Ministry said everything must be done to stop this “murderous spiral.”
Activists said given the high death toll of the past few days, the Syrian government appears to be furiously trying to control the situation on the ground before the full Arab League monitoring team arrives.
Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby said the safety of the mission is the responsibility of the host country, and he hoped that areas visited by the mission will see no violence, and that in itself would be protection for the locals.
An observer team of around 20 experts in military affairs and human rights will head for Syria at the weekend, led by Lt. Gen. Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa of Sudan.
Another team of 100 observers will leave for Syria within two weeks, according to the Arab League plan. A total of 500 observers are planned.
That attack on Kfar Owaid was among the deadliest so far in Syria. The mountainous region of Jabal al-Zawiyah has been the scene of clashes between troops and army defectors, as well as weeks of intense anti-government protests.
“Thousands of soldiers and special forces have deployed, there are tanks and checkpoints every few meters, snipers everywhere,” an activist in Kfar Owaid told The Associated Press by telephone Thursday,
He said he was on the run and spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for his own safety.
The Syrian government has not commented on the death toll in Kfar Oweid and other areas in the past few days, but state-run news agency SANA said Thursday that its forces stormed areas in southern and northern Syria, arresting and killings dozens of “terrorists” during raids and clashes. Syria blames terrorists and foreign agents for the uprising.
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