Syria 'accepts' observers as 34 bodies dumped

Syria said on Monday it conditionally accepts observers as part of an Arab plan, as a rights group reported militiamen loyal to the regime killed 34 civilians and dumped their bodies in a city square.The Arab League, which has threatened to impose new sanctions on Damascus if it fails to comply with the plan for monitors, said it was considering the Syrian offer to allow them into the troubled country.French oil company Total, meanwhile, said it was suspending its operations in Syria in line with EU sanctions, which indirectly target its local partner.Syria had initially refused to sign an Arab proposal to send in observers to monitor its forces accused of rights violations by the UN, which says that more than 4,000 people have been killed since March in a protest crackdown.But in a letter sent to the Cairo-based Arab League late on Sunday as a League deadline was set to expire, President Bashar al-Assads regime said it will accept monitors if its conditions are met.The Syrian government responded positively to the signing of the protocol on sending observers based on the Syrian understanding of this cooperation, Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdisi told reporters.While confirming the receipt of a Syrian government letter outlining the about-face, Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi said it contained new demands.Weve contacted Arab foreign ministers and they have been apprised of the Syrian letter, Arabi said, adding that consultations were under way.Meanwhile, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said one activist reported seeing the bodies of 34 civilians, in a square in the pro-regime neighbourhood of Al-Zahra, who had been abducted by the shabiha on Monday.The civilians, it said, had been seized from several anti-regime neighbourhoods in Homs, which has been targeted by a brutal crackdown on almost nine months of anti-regime dissent.The Observatory also reported the so-called shabiha militiamen on Monday abducted a bus driver and his 13 passengers in Homs province.