Syria to Release Political Prisoners

Al Jazeera reports:

Bashar Assad, Syria's president, has formed a new cabinet two weeks after sacking the country's government amid unprecendented protests against his rule.

Assad also ordered the release of hundreds of protesters detained over the past couple of weeks but said  those who committed crimes "against the nation and the citizens" would remain in jail.

Adel Safar, a former agriculture minister, will lead the new government while veteran diplomat Walid al-Moualem remains as foreign minister, Syria's state news agency reported.

The announcement follows a deal allowing Syria's army to enter the restive coastal city of Baniyas and claims by human rights groups that several people detained by security forces had been tortured.

The state-run SANA news agency reported that snipers fired on a Syrian military patrol in Banias, killing one soldier and wounding another.

"There was a deal on Wednesday between Syrian officials and city residents for the army to enter Baniyas imminently to restore order," Rami Abdel Rahman, president of Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), told AFP by telephone.

"Security agents will refrain from patrolling neighbourhoods to make arrests, and the hundreds of people arrested in Banyias will be released," he added.

"Elements of armed gangs," some of whom he said were close to security and intelligence services and "have caused unrest in order to create dissension, will be prosecuted", he said.

Al Jazeera's Rula Amin, reporting from Damascus, the capital, said people were waiting to see if the pledge to release all the political prisoners will be fulfilled.

"This is one of the demands of the protesters to release all the prisoners. Also people are watching how the government will be dealing with the protesters in tomorrow's protests," she said.