Syrian Rebels Abandon UN Peace

The Syria peace plan backed by United Nations envoy Kofi Annan may have fully unraveled. With the activist group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reporting that 80 Syrian soldiers were killed by rebels over the weekend, anti-regime forces said Monday that they are no longer tied by the Annan plan, which they said has failed to stem bloodshed in the embattled nation. “We have decided to end our commitment to this [plan], and starting from that date [Friday] we began defending our people,” rebel spokesman Maj. Sami al-Kurdi told Reuters. A council of rebel military leaders had given President Bashar al-Assad until last Friday to put an end to violence in the country.