Syrian groups opposed to President Bashar al-Assad say they are facing a fresh wave of violence less than a week before a U.N.-backed ceasefire is scheduled to take effect. Clashes were reported in the suburbs of Damascus and in the central region of Homs, where government forces reportedly opened fire on a group of women, killing two of them. Thousands of refugees have poured across the border into Turkey to escape the violence. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the crisis appears to be deepening, even as the government says it is withdrawing troops to comply with a peace plan brokered by U.N.-Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan. On Thursday, Annan called for an end to the violence.

Kofi Annan: “We must silence the tanks, helicopters, mortars, guns, and stop all other forms of violence, too: sexual abuse, torture, executions, abductions, destruction of homes, forced displacement, and other abuses, including on children. We have explained to the opposition the immediate steps demanded of them if the government implements its obligations.”

Syrian National Council Executive Committee Member Samir Nashar voiced doubts that Assad’s regime would adhere to the ceasefire.

Samir Nashar: “Even if it announced its acceptance of the Kofi Annan initiative, we believe it is an attempt to buy time and an attempt to reorganize militarily. Bashar al-Assad will not adhere to the ceasefire, and Bashar al-Assad has, since the beginning of the revolution, been in charge of the only side that fired against the people.”