16 Killed as Arab League Launches Syria Peace Bid

Syrian forces killed 16 people Saturday, activists said, as they tried to crush anti-regime dissent as Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi met President Bashar al-Assad to broker an end to the bloodshed.

Arabi carried a 13-point document outlining Arab proposals to halt the deadly crackdown, hold elections and push for reforms in the League member state.

The attempt by the 22-member pan-Arab body to resolve the festering Syria crisis takes place with the United States set to ramp up work on a UN Security Council resolution targeting Syria.

"We're looking at accelerating that work next week," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in reference to a draft resolution likely to include sanctions.

Arabi's mission came three days later than originally planned, as activists reported seven new deaths a day after five other Syrians were killed when security forces dispersed protests after weekly Friday prayers.

Activists said security forces killed seven people in northwestern and central Syria on Saturday, five in the rebellious city of Homs, and nine others were arrested in a village bordering Lebanon.

"Five civilians were killed during a military and security operation to track down wanted people in the Al-Basateen neighborhood of Homs," in central Syria, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

In the northwestern province of Idlib a 45-year-old man was killed when security forces manning a checkpoint opened fire, said the Observatory, while the Local Coordination Committees said a woman was killed at dawn in Saraqeb.

Meanwhile the Observatory reported that troops and security forces raided the village of Hit bordering Lebanon, arresting nine and damaging houses.

The United Nations says that more than 2,200 people -- mostly civilians -- have been killed in a crackdown on almost daily protests by pro-democracy and anti-regime demonstrators in Syria since mid-March.

Damascus insists that it is battling "armed terrorist gangs."

Arabi's trip comes after protesters across Syria on Friday demanded international protection.

According to a copy of an Arab League document seen by AFP earlier this week, Arabi was due to propose that Assad hold elections in three years, move towards a pluralistic government and immediately halt the crackdown.

Assad should declare his "commitment to making the transition towards a pluralistic government and use his powers to speed up reforms and announce multi-candidate elections... for 2014, when his current mandate ends," says the document.

Assad has pledged reforms and issued a decree in August allowing opposition political parties alongside the ruling Baath party, in power since 1963 with the constitutional status of "the leader of state and society."

The Arab initiative, agreed at a foreign ministers' meeting in Cairo last month, also calls on Syria "to immediately end" the crackdown, "separate the military from political and civil life" and begin talks with the opposition.

The initiative had angered Syria, which said it contained "unacceptable and biased language" and Damascus had postponed Arabi's trip which was initially due on Wednesday, citing "circumstances beyond our control."

Syria insists that it is battling "armed terrorist gangs," and received support from Moscow this week when Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said some protesters were indeed "terrorists."

Russia, which along with China and other countries is opposed to a Security Council resolution targeting Syria, is due to host Assad's adviser Buthaina Shaaban on Monday.

Mikhail Margelov, foreign affairs chief in Russia's upper house of parliament, said he would meet Shaaban to try to get approval to send a delegation of Russian senators to Damascus.

Videos posted on the Internet of Friday's protests showed crowds in the flashpoint Damascus neighborhood of Barza carrying signs saying: "We want Russia and China to change their position towards this regime."

Activists who called Friday's protests said in a message on the "Syrian Revolution 2011" Facebook page that the Syrian people want the United Nations to send a "permanent observer mission" to Syria.

The United States and several European powers are pushing for a UN resolution to condemn Assad's regime which has already been slapped with sanctions, including an oil ban.

But they have met with stiff resistance from Russia, China and a group of emerging nations including Brazil.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Assad in a television interview that "shadows loom over his legitimacy" and that "he who bases his power in bloodshed will end up leaving in a trail of blood."