Syrian troops 'begin withdrawal' from Deraa

Syrian troops have arrested 300 people in a Damascus suburb, while building up forces around the Mediterranean coastal town of Baniyas.

The sweep in the suburb of Saqba came despite appeals on Thursday from UN chief Ban Ki-moon, the United States, Italy and France for President Bashar al-Assad to end the deadly crackdown on anti-regime demonstrators.

The Syrian official SANA news agency quoted an official military source as saying the army had completed its mission to "chase elements of terrorist groups ... and to restore security, peace and stability".

An activist, who will remain anonymous for his own safety, told Al Jazeera in a phone interview from Baniyas that the Syrian government was continuing to reinforce its forces, tanks and surveillance on Thursday.

"We are facing a sort of a cleansing war against the people of Baniyas," he said.

Another activist told the AFP news agency: "It looks like they are preparing to attack the town, like they did in Deraa.”

Meanwhile, activists vowed a "Day of Defiance" on Friday to press a seven-week-old anti-regime campaign in which rights groups say 607 people have died, while 8,000 people have been jailed or gone missing.

A correspondent for AFP reported that about 350 soldiers travelling in around 20 armoured personnel carriers and a similar number of lorries all bearing photographs of Assad drove out of the city around 10am local time on Thursday.

However, online activists told Al Jazeera that the report was false and that tanks had been sent to Newa, a village near Deraa, late on Wednesday.

AFP quoted General Riad Haddad, director of the military's political department, as saying the withdrawal would be done in phases and that life in the city would "return to normal".

"The army will have pulled out of Deraa completely by the end of the day," he said.

The army deployed tanks and snipers in the flashpoint city on April 25 and cut electricity and telephone services. Activists say there is shortage of water, bread and gas and that about 50 people have been reported killed over the past 10 days.

The siege of Deraa has anger and triggered solidarity demonstrations across the country.

'Scores arrested'

But as tanks were pulling out of Deraa, military units were deploying around Baniyas. Four armored personnel carriers, several tanks and a bus carrying soldiers had been spotted, witnesses said.

Elsewhere in Syria, soldiers stormed a suburb of the capital, Damascus, around 1am local time on Thursday and made arrests, according to local residents and democracy activists.

"They cut off communications before they came in," a resident told Reuters news agency. "There is no resistance. The demonstrations in Saqba have been peaceful. Scores of people have been arrested."

Al Jazeera was unable to verify independently the accounts of the crackdown.

In another Damascus suburb, Douma, many men were taken from their houses by security forces making rounds from one house to another, a resident told Al Jazeera, adding that children as young as 14 years old were arrested.

The raids and arrests came as tanks and armoured vehicles deployed around Rastan, a town near Homs, Syria's third largest city. Last Friday security forces shot dead at least 17 demonstrators in Rastan, residents and rights campaigners said, after 50 local members of the governing Baath Party resigned.

Activists say at least 1,000 people have been arrested across the country since Saturday, indicating that Assad is widening the use of the military to crush anti-government demonstrations.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera urged Syrian authorities to release Dorothy Parvaz, one of the Qatar-based channel's journalists, who has been detained since she flew in to Damascus last week.

Parvaz, who holds American, Canadian and Iranian citizenship, was "detained upon arrival in Damascus six days ago [on Friday]. She has had no contact with the outside world since", Al Jazeera said.

'Brutal crackdown'

The US and Italy warned Syria on Thursday that it will face penalties and increasing isolation if it does not halt violence against demonstrators.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said Syria had to know that there would be "consequences for this brutal crackdown."

Speaking at press conference with Franco Frattini, the Italian foreign minister, Clinton said the US is looking at boosting sanctions it has already imposed on Syrian leaders. Frattini said Italy would support similar measures by the European Union.

Last month, the US administration imposed financial penalties on three senior Syrian officials, including Assad's brother, Maher, as well as Syria's intelligence agency and Iran's Revolutionary Guard over the crackdown.

France is working with its EU partners on implementing sanctions against Syrian leaders but there is still no agreement on who should be on the list, Alain Juppe, the country's foreign minister, said on Thursday.

"In the European Union, there exists the will to adopt sanctions quite rapidly," he told reporters after a meeting of an international contact group ranged against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

In a phone call on Wednesday, Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, appealed to Assad to end the crackdown, to allow a UN aid team into worst-hit towns and to co-operate with a UN Human Rights Council investigation into the violence, Martin Nesirky, a spokesman, said.

Ban told Assad there had to be "full and early implementation of all the reform measures" promised by his government ", and also emphasised the importance of engaging a genuine inclusive dialogue and a comprehensive reform process".

Source:Al Jazeera and agencies