Cairo: An advance team of Arab observers will head to Damascus on Thursday to set the ground for monitors overseeing a deal to end months of bloodshed, the Arab League said on Tuesday.
"An advance team headed by Arab League Assistant Secretary General Samir Seif al-Yazal will head to Damascus on Thursday," League Assistant Secretary General Ahmad Bin Helli told reporters.
'Death penalty'
Syrian President Bashar Al Assad has signed into effect a law imposing the death penalty on anyone arming "terrorists", state media said on Tuesday amid mounting clashes with rebel troops.
"The law provides for the death penalty for anyone providing weapons or helping to provide weapons intended for the carrying out of terrorist acts," the official SANA news agency said.
The decree also imposes life imprisonment with hard labour for arms smuggling "for profit or to carry out acts of terrorism," and 15 years' hard labour for arms smuggling for other purposes.
'120 killed Tuesday'
The announcement followed reports that Syrian forces killed 120 people on Tuesday - the same day Syria said it had agreed to the Arab League plan to send foreign observers.
The Syrian authorities contend that protests raging since March are the work of "armed terrorists" not civilian demonstrators as maintained by Western governments and human rights groups.
The UN General Assembly on Monday overwhelmingly approved a resolution condemning human rights abuses during the authorities' crackdown on the protests, which the world body says has left more than 5,000 people dead.
