Syria: Arab monitor pullout aims to influence UN
Syrian officials express regret, surprise over Arab League's decision to freeze mission, say move is an attempt to influence Security Council, increase pressure for foreign intervention
Syria said it regretted and was surprised by an Arab League decision to halt its mission monitoring a peace plan in the country, official state television said on Saturday.
"Syria regrets and is surprised at the Arab decision to stop the work of its monitoring mission after it asked for a one- month extension of its work," Syria Television reported in an urgent news flash.
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Arab League freezes mission in Syria
Syrian officials noted that the Arab League's move was an attempt to influence the United Nations Security Council and increase pressure for foreign intervention.
"This will have a negative impact and put pressure on (Security Council) deliberations with the aim of calling for foreign intervention and encouraging armed groups to increase violence," the news flash quoted an official as saying.
"Syria is still committed to the success of the Arab monitoring mission and to protecting the mission observers," the news flash said.
The Arab League on Saturday said it was suspending its mission due to deteriorating conditions and rising violence in Syria, which is grappling with a 10-month revolt against President Bashar Assad's rule.
The League called on Assad to step down last week and is meeting with the Security Council in the coming days to discuss an Arab peace plan.
Fighting near capital
Meanwhile, fighting outside three rebel-held suburbs of Damascus was reported on Saturday, activists said, adding they believed the army was trying to prevent the insurgents from building a stronghold in an area so close to the centre of government.
Eight residents were killed and dozens wounded and 11 government troops killed in the clashes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that security forces shot dead four civilians and an army deserter elsewhere in the country.
The Damascus insurgents were emboldened by a string of reports of army desertions, and activists said one group of deserters had brought with them their three tanks.
A spokesman for the rebel forces, known as the Free Syrian Army (FSA), said he did not have a complete tally but estimated that over 100 soldiers had deserted in the area on Saturday.
Elsewhere, activists said they were still recovering bodies from a sectarian "massacre" of Sunni Muslims in a neighborhood of the flashpoint city Homs, which they blamed on pro-Assad militiamen belonging to the president's minority Alawite sect.
The Syrian Observatory, which said the death count had risen to 47, said snipers and checkpoints had made it difficult for activists to enter the district and find all the bodies.
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