Cnn Information

(CNN) -- A U.N. advance peacekeeping team is headed to Damascus for talks on deploying observers to monitor a cease-fire, a spokesman for special envoy Kofi Annan said.

The team should arrive by Thursday, Ahmad Fawzi said.

But growing reports of violence this week suggest high-level diplomatic efforts and promises by the Syrian government have yet to produce any semblance of a cease-fire.

On Monday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime promised to withdraw its forces from population centers by April 10.

Yet Syrian forces pummeled the beleaguered city of Homs once again Wednesday morning, the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Military aircraft renewed their shelling on the opposition-held city of Taftanaz, a dissident group based in the nearby city of Binnish said Wednesday.

"The residents of Binnish are fleeing ... and (residents) in Taftanaz are not able to flee because they are surrounded by the Syrian army," the opposition Binnish Coordination Committee said. The group said military forces were clearing Taftanaz of any opposition presence and members of the rebel Free Syrian Army.

Several opposition activists scoffed at the government's promise to withdraw forces.

One man in Hama, identified only as Manhal for safety reasons, described such claims as "lies."

"This is not my thought, this is the truth of my camera (this) morning," he said Wednesday. "Videos speak more than words."

Manhal sent a video showing tanks and heavy military vehicles pulling into town.

"Now tanks are moving like taxis in the streets," going from neighborhood to neighborhood arresting people, Manhal said.

CNN cannot verify the authenticity of the video nor confirm accounts of violence in Syria, as the government has severely restricted access to the country by foreign journalists.

The opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria said at least 74 people were killed across the country on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency...