Syria on "edge a blade"

The United Nations says more than 9,000 people have been killed since anti-regime protests broke out in March 2011, while monitors put the number at more than 10,000. On Monday, Human Rights Watch said Syrian security forces and pro-regime militias had executed more than 100 civilians and rebel fighters in attacks on protest hubs since late 2011. Many of the summary and extrajudicial executions were carried out last month, and at least 85 of those killed were residents who never took part in fighting, including women and children. Monitors said 51 people were killed on Sunday, a day after nearly 130 died across Syria, while 200 others were arrested in raids by government forces pushing to crush dissent ahead of the April 10 deadline. At least 35 Syrian civilians were killed on Monday in shelling by regime forces that struck a village in the country s central Hama province, a monitoring group said. Among the dead in the village of Latamna, 15 were under the age of 18 and eight were women, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The bombardment, which he described as a "new massacre by the Syrian regime," came a day before a UN deadline for a truce plan. A peace plan for Syria was in jeopardy after the regime laid down conditions for a pullout of government troops from protest hubs and fresh clashes raged on Monday. Under a peace deal brokered by Kofi Annan, the former UN chief, the Syrian army was scheduled to withdraw from protest cities on Tuesday, with a complete end to fighting set for 48 hours later.