Syria says it will stop fighting by U.N. deadline

In this image made from amateur video released by Shaam News Network and accessed on April 10, 2012, purports to show black smoke rising through the air from a building in Homs, Syria. The state-run news agency said on Wednesday that the military will stop fighting in time for Thursday’s deadline for a U.N.-brokered ceasefire.

Syria’s state-run news agency said on Wednesday that the military will stop fighting in time for Thursday’s deadline for a ceasefire brokered by special envoy Kofi Annan.

The report, however, said Syria reserves the right to respond to any aggression.

In a similar announcement, Mr. Annan said he has been informed by the Syrian government that it will “cease all military fighting throughout Syrian territory” as of 6 a.m. Damascus time (8.30 a.m. IST) on Thursday.

Mr. Annan’s spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said in a statement on Wednesday that the letter from Syria’s Foreign Minister said the government reserves “the right to respond proportionately to any attacks carried out by armed terrorist groups against civilians, government forces or public and private property.”

Mr. Fawzi said Mr. Annan will continue to work with the Syrian government on implementation of his six-point plan to end the more than yearlong conflict in which more than 9,000 people have been killed, according to the U.N.