At least 100 Syrian army deserters were killed or wounded in clashes yesterday as Damascus faced new demands to halt its bloody nine-month crackdown on dissent.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which provided the casualty figures, also said 36 civilians were killed around the country, 23 of them in the northwestern province of Idlib where the deserters lost their lives.

In Cairo, the Arab League said an advance team of observers would head to Damascus tomorrow to lay the ground for monitors overseeing a plan to which Syria agreed on Monday.

“After clashes that broke out this morning with the regular army, 100 deserters were besieged then killed or wounded between the villages of Kafruwed and Al-Fatira” in the Idlib district of Jabal al-Zawia, the Britain-based rights group said.

“Dozens of civilians, including many activists, are also surrounded by the Syrian army in Kafruwed,” it said in a statement received in Nicosia, quoting activists on the ground.

It also said 14 members of the security forces were killed in southern Daraa province, where the protests broke out in mid-March.