Protests, fighting go on as UN general tests Syria ceasefire hopes Stringer / AP Syrians raise their hands vowing to continue fighting until President Bashar Assad's regime falls during a protest in a neighborhood in Damascus on April 4, 2012. Reuters reports - Syrian troops fought rebels in a town near Damascus on Thursday before a senior U.N. peacekeeper was due to seek President Bashar al-Assad's agreement for 250 unarmed U.N. observers to monitor a U.N.-backed ceasefire next week. Explosions and heavy machinegun fire rocked Douma, 8 miles from the capital, sending columns of smoke rising from several buildings, anti-Assad activists from the Revolutionary Council of the Damascus Countryside said. Fighting shows no sign of abating even though Assad agreed more than a week ago to a six-point peace plan drawn up by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan to end the year-long conflict. Continue reading. Syrian activists prepare signs for upcoming protests, at a house in a neighborhood in Damascus on April 3, 2012. The Arabic on the poster, center, reads "Kofi Annan, with the deadline you gave Bashar the criminal, you freed his hands for more crimes," The poster at top left reads "Oh Arabs, we amazed the world with our steadfastness, and you amazed the world with your silence."