Authorities in Syria have released 755 prisoners who were detained in the government crackdown on dissent over the past nine months, the country's state-run news agency said.

SANA said the release excludes prisoners with "blood on their hands".

The release of prisoners is one of the terms of the Arab League peace plan to stop the bloodshed in Syria and comes a day after Arab monitors were allowed to deploy in the country to ensure authorities are complying with the plan.

US-based Human Rights Watch had just accused Syrian authorities of hiding hundreds of detainees from the observers now in the country. It said the detainees have been transferred to off-limits military sites and urged the observers to insist on full access to all sites used for detention.

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