At least two rocket-propelled grenades have hit a building of Syria's governing Baath Party in the capital Damascus, residents and activists say.
After initial reports of smoke rising from the building, there were no obvious signs of damage on Sunday.If confirmed, it would be the first such attack reported inside the capital since the uprising began in March.
President Bashar al-Assad has vowed to continue his crackdown on opposition groups despite foreign condemnation.
An Arab League deadline for Syria to end its crackdown on protesters passed overnight with no sign of violence abating.
At least 14 people were killed on Saturday, according to the UK-based opposition news service, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.Four of those killed were government intelligence agents whose car was ambushed in Hama by gunmen believed to be army defectors, it said.
Foreign journalists are unable to move around Syria freely, making it difficult to verify reports.
Since the unrest began, some 3,500 people have been killed, according to a UN estimate.
'Message to regime'
The opposition Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC) said "several" RPG rockets had been launched at Baath Party building in the Mazraa neighbourhood of Damascus, and firefighters had been dispatched to the area.Normal movement resumed in the streets around the party office on Sunday morning but security forces remained in force inside the building, a CA reporter says.
Our reporter saw no signs of damage to the building but adds that residents reported an exchange of fire overnight.
An unnamed witness told Reuters news agency the attack had happened before dawn and the building had been mostly empty.
"I saw smoke rising from the building and fire trucks around it," he told Reuters. "It seems to have been intended as a message to the regime."
The Syrian Free Army, comprised of army defectors and based in neighbouring Turkey, said it had carried out the attack, according to Reuters.
The CA's Jim Muir reports from Beirut that the report of the grenade attacks is so far unconfirmed and there is even a slight suspicion that it might have been the regime itself doing something to justify its assertion that it is armed terrorists who are behind all the trouble.
Election promise
President Assad told Britain's Sunday Times newspaper that Syria would "not bow down" to pressure.The Syrian president also promised elections in February or March when Syrians would vote for a parliament to create a new constitution, which would in turn determine future presidential elections.
"That constitution will set the basis of how to elect a president, if they need a president or don't need him..." he said. "The ballot boxes will decide who should be president."
On Saturday evening, a deadline for Syria to accept a peace plan put together by the Arab League passed.
Syria has agreed in principle to accept the peace plan, but critics accuse it of stalling for time.
The head of the Arab League said it was studying a letter from Syria seeking changes to its proposed observer mission. Reports say Damascus is seeking to reduce the observer delegation from 500 to 40.
The observers are supposed to oversee the implementation of the rest of the plan, which requires the government to stop attacking demonstrators, pull its military out of restive areas and begin negotiations with the opposition.
But in his interview with the Sunday Times, Mr Assad accused the Arab League of creating a pretext for Western intervention in his country, which he said would trigger an "earthquake" across the Middle East.
