Syrian rebels eye 'huge operations'

Arab League accused of failing Syrians

(CNN) -- The Free Syrian Army plans to kick off "huge operations" this week against "vital interests" of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, the force's commander said Wednesday.

"We prepared ourselves for this stage," Col. Riad al-Asaad told CNN in Turkey. "We can't force him off with the peaceful demonstrations, so we are going to force him by arms to leave."

The anti-government resistance movement, which emerged over the summer, comprises defectors from the massive and better-equipped Syrian army. The fledgling force is flexing its muscles amid international fears of a civil war that would destabilize both Syria and the greater Middle East.

But during the Arab League's monitoring mission in Syria, it suspended all but defensive actions against the regime, hoping the league could make progress toward establishing peace.

The league's fact-finding mission has been determining whether the Syrian government is abiding by a peace agreement to end the regime's 10-month-long crackdown against protests.

But al-Asaad called the Arab League mission a "mockery," with "no teeth" and no pull. Security forces shot at people Tuesday in front of Arab League observers "who did not do anything about it."

"We don't believe in the Arab League mission in Syria. I think they are covering the regime and blocking any international intervention to help the Syrian people," he said.

Al-Asaad called on the international community to provide money and weapons.

"We will keep fighting until we take the regime down," he said. "And this week, the world will see huge operations all over the country and against all the regime's vital interests and army locations."

The Free Syrian Army has documented the names of 25,000 of its fighters -- 7,140 of them officers, and the rest soldiers, the army's Lt. Col. Mohamed Hamado said. The U.S. State Department says the Syrian armed forces are "comprised of some 400,000 troops upon mobilization," but analysts believe the number of Syrian forces is much lower.

But the resistance group says it has a lot of grass-roots support and has been carrying out operations against government forces. Four days ago, Hamado said Wednesday, the force captured 10 members of the Syrian army and their munitions in Idlib province's Jabal al-Zawiya and posted videos of them on the Internet.

"We are preparing for big operations and have no faith in Arab League monitors or their useless mission," al-Asaad said.

Between 5,000 and 6,000 deaths have occurred over the last 10 months during the government crackdown against protesters, according to various counts. Al-Assad's government says it is putting down armed terrorists and blames the bloodshed on them.

As the military opposition resolved to take on the regime, the political opposition faced a possible setback.

A deal charting Syria's course if al-Assad's regime falls appeared to be in danger Wednesday.

The Syrian National Council (SNC) and the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria (NCB), two major opposition movements, signed an agreement Friday night in Cairo.

But the council, which said the deal was tentative and dependent on its executive board's approval, said on its website it is now rejecting the proposal and wants a new one.

Walid Buni, a member of the SNC executive board, said the council leaders wanted more discussion on what it considered a tentative deal, but the NCB took it to the media as a final deal.

Khalid Kamal, an SNC member, said the sides are disagreeing over the percentage of NCB representation and the NCB's failure to call for the U.N. Security Council to protect civilians.

The NCB, which said the deal was final Saturday, could not immediately be reached for comment.

As for the Arab League mission, Secretary-General Nabil el-Araby is due to get a briefing on Syria from the head of the Arab Human Rights Council on Wednesday.

An opposition group said that 13 people were killed in Syria on Wednesday and that officials had cleaned up a prison in advance of a visit by monitors from the Arab League, which sent its observers into Syria last month.

Monitors have arrived at the central prison in Homs, said the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, an opposition activist group. It charged that prison management cleaned the place, fixed electrical heating and lighting, and improved the overall living conditions in the prison Tuesday.

The LCC, which reported the death toll, also said government security forces were besieging the Damascus suburb of Daraya with helicopters, tanks and busloads of troops. The LCC reported unrest as well in Homs, Hama, Daraa, and Idlib. Ten of the deaths are in Homs, and the others are in Daraa, Hama and Damascus, the LCC said.

CNN cannot independently confirm events inside Syria because the government restricts the activity of journalists.

French and U.S. officials Tuesday expressed doubts about whether Syria was abiding by its agreement with the Arab League, which also calls for the release of protesters jailed by the months-long crackdown on anti-government demonstrations and the withdrawal of Syrian troops from cities.

In Paris, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told France's I-Tele that he was "a little skeptical" about whether the monitors are getting free access to the facts.

"We await their report that will be carried out in the coming days," Juppe said. But he added, "I do not consider the battle already lost."

"The secretary-general of the Arab League has expressed the will to get to the bottom of this investigation," he said. "The truth must be established, and the regime cannot poison the observers who are on the ground."

And U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Tuesday that while there have been some advances in Syria since al-Assad agreed to the Arab League plan to reduce violence, more needed to be done.

"Our concern is that the Arab League monitors, although they are providing some ability for some demonstrators to express their views in some places, they have not led to the full implementation of the commitments that the Assad regime took on," Nuland told reporters in Washington.

Arab League ministers are to meet Saturday to "take stock" of the monitoring effort, Nuland said. She said Jeffrey Feltman, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, was headed to Cairo to consult with the Arab League ahead of the meeting.

El-Araby is scheduled to discuss the monitoring team's preliminary report Saturday, an official with the organization told CNN on condition of anonymity. The official is not authorized to speak to the media and asked not to be named.

Asked about the Free Syrian Army and its pledge to conduct attacks if the Arab League mission doesn't end violence, Nuland urged the avoidance of attacks that would play into the government's hands.

"Our consistent view throughout this has been the view shared by the vast majority of Syrians in opposition, which is that further militarization of Syria, further violence in Syria, is not the answer, is not the right move for the Syrian people; that the opposition is far stronger when it exercises its right to peaceful protests and makes its views clear, taking the moral authority of not resorting to the same tactics that the regime has used. That's exactly what the regime wants, is to make this -- make Syria more violent, and have an excuse to retaliate itself," Nuland said.

El-Araby said Monday that the killing was still going on despite the presence of his observers.

"There is still gunfire, there are still snipers, and we hope that all that will disappear," he said in Cairo, adding: "There is gunfire from various directions, which makes it hard to tell who is shooting. There is no doubt that killing is ongoing, but I can't pinpoint the numbers."

The Arab League aims "to provide protection to Syrian civilians," el-Araby said Monday, adding that it was asking for a cease-fire and for the names of detainees in Syrian prisons. Nearly 3,500 prisoners have been freed, he said.

The United Nations last month estimated that there have been more than 5,000 deaths since mid-March. The LCC said this week more than 5,800 people have been killed. Avaaz, a political activist group, said more than 6,000 people have died.

Journalists Mohamed Fadel Fahmy and Omar al-Muqdad and CNN's Hamdi Alkhshali and Joe Sterling contributed to this report.