- NEW: At least 34 people, including three children, are killed Tuesday
- NEW: Russia calls on foreign nations to exert pressure on armed opposition groups
- Opposition reports unabated violence, but government says it has withdrawn units
- Kofi Annan calls for both sides to "cease all forms of violence" by Thursday morning
Are you there? Send us your images or video. Also, read this report in Arabic.
(CNN) -- Syrian forces pounded cities across the nation, opposition activists said, as a United Nations-brokered cease-fire deadline came and went Tuesday
At least 34 people, including three children, were killed Tuesday; 20 were in the besieged city of Homs, the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria said. Tuesday's toll continues a shocking surge in violence and atrocities ahead of the deadline for troops to withdraw.
The Syrian government, however, said it had taken steps to abide by the peace plan laid out by U.N.-Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan.
"We did withdraw some military units from some provinces, in accordance with point C of Annan's plan," Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said after meeting with Russia's foreign minister in Moscow.
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Moallem said that while the Syrian government had taken positive steps, the opposition had intensified its operations.
President Bashar al-Assad's regime had agreed to the deadline, but demanded that its opponents, whom it calls armed terrorists, put down their weapons. Damascus also wanted a promise from foreign governments not to fund opposition groups.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the Syrian government could have been more active in implementing the peace plan, but he urged heightened international pressure on opposition groups.
"But on the other hand," he said, "we cannot overlook the fact that Kofi Annan's proposals have not been agreed to by some of the opposition groups including the well-known Syrian National Council."
Sheikh Anas Airout, a senior member of the council, told CNN that Annan did not get an agreement from the opposition body but that the Free Syrian Army, the main armed opposition group made up mainly of defected soldiers, provided an explicit commitment to abide by the cease-fire as long as the regime stopped its attacks.
With both the regime and rebel fighters refusing to back down until the other side does, prospects paled for an end to the fighting. And the bloodshed continued unabated.
One opposition activist in the western city of Homs said shells rained on two neighborhoods late Tuesday morning.
"Tanks hitting those areas remain in al-Qusoor neighborhood. So there is not a tank that pulled out from there," said the activist, identified only as Omar for safety reasons.
And in the northern province of Aleppo, al-Assad's forces shelled the town of Maarei from the outskirts of the town, the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"So far, we have not documented until now any withdrawal or movements by the Syrian security forces on the ground, despite the calm that is seen in most parts (of the country)," the group said.
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Syria: Forces face conflict deadline Reports of the carnage blighted hopes that the violence that has engulfed Syria for more than a year would finally stop.
"Should the Syrian government yet again refuse to implement its commitments, make promises and then break them and continue and escalate the killing, then I think it will be clear to all that there isn't yet prospect for a diplomatic solution," Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Monday.
"We still hope that that's possible, we still want to give that a final chance, but I don't think we, or anybody else, are particularly optimistic," she said.
Early last week, the Syrian government agreed to the April 10 deadline to withdraw troops from cities. Annan's six-point peace plan also calls for a halt in violence by both sides and a Syrian-led political process to end the crisis.
Annan has also called for both government and rebel forces to "cease all forms of violence" by Thursday morning.
But reports of violence have only intensified in recent days. At least 160 people were killed in Syria on Monday, the LCC said. That number was more than twice the reported death toll from Sunday.
CNN cannot independently verify reports of violence and deaths as the government has severely restricted access by international media.
The United Nations estimates that the violence in Syria has killed at least 9,000 people. The LCC puts the toll at more than 11,000.
The Syrian regime has consistently blamed violence in the country on "armed terrorist groups," but many world leaders have said the government is lethally cracking down on dissidents seeking democracy and an ouster of al-Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for 42 years.
Rebels, including defectors from al-Assad's forces, have taken up arms, but their strength has often paled in comparison with the better-equipped regime troops.
"We can't drop our guns until the regime withdraws from the cities," said Lt. Abdullah Odah of the Free Syrian Army in Istanbul. "We didn't start the mass murder. The regime started it. It has to stop killing, and then automatically we will stop."
While the violence has sent thousands of refugees into neighboring Turkey over several months, Monday marked the first known time in the Syrian conflict that violence crossed the border, resulting in casualties at a refugee camp.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that Syria has clearly committed a border violation and that officials are "conducting diplomacy with regional countries and will soon take the necessary steps," Turkey's Anadolu news agency reported.
But Erdogan said Turkey will not turn its back on Syrian refugees.
"You can clearly see how individuals are running away from Syria. They are running away from death. We can not shut down our doors to these people," Erdogan said, according to Anadolu. "If the doors are shut down, they will be toasted. Such a scenario is unacceptable."
Annan arrived in Turkey on Tuesday to visit Syrian refugee camps in Hatay province, near the Syrian border.
More than 24,000 Syrian refugees have fled to Turkey, said Selcuk Unal, a Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman.
CNN's Amir Ahmed, Ivan Watson, Yousuf Basil, Holly Yan, Salma Abdelaziz and John King contributed to this report.
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