Syria sets free 30 prisoners with no homicide records

Damascus, Apr 21 (Xinhua-ANI): The Syrian authorities have set free 30 prisoners who had got involved in the recent events in Syria "and whose hands were not smeared with the blood of Syrians, " state-run SANA news agency reported Saturday.

The report, meanwhile, said that 248 people from the central province of Hama have turned themselves in to Syrian authorities and handed over their weapons, adding that they were immediately released because they were not involved in bloodshed.

Syria's interior ministry has recently granted amnesty to all those who surrender themselves and had not been involved in homicides.

The Syrian government said the 13-month-old unrest is the work of armed groups and extremists backed by foreign plot not a popular will.

The unrest in Syria has grown more militarized with protesters and some army defectors taken up arms to defend themselves against the alleged crackdown by the government troops.

Syria has accepted a UN-backed cease-fire truce that aims at solving the Syrian crisis politically and an advance team of international observers set foot in Syria last week to monitor the tenuous cease-fire.

Since their arrival, the violence has to some extent declined. But still, attacks and deaths are being reported on daily bases. Syria's mainstream media said that at least 20 people were killed Friday by armed groups' attacks, while opposition activists said at least 23 people were killed and placed the blame on the government.

The UN estimated that more than 9,000 people have so far been killed in the Syrian conflict, including at least 500 children, while Syria says 6,044 have died, including 2,566 soldiers and police. (Xinhua-ANI)