The United States on Monday dismissed Syrian demands for written guarantees that rebels would lay down arms as a stalling tactic. "This is just another way to stall for time," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters. Syria was to have started pulling out of towns and cities by Tuesday, in preparation for a ceasefire. Asked whether there was a new estimate on how many people in Syria may have been killed since the uprising began, Nuland said, "the figure that the U.N. Human Rights Council has been using is around 9,000." Nuland also said that the United States was "absolutely outraged" by Syria's apparent attack on Syrian refugees on the Turkish side of the border. "We strongly condemn any attack by the Syrian regime on refugees in bordering countries," Nuland said.
