Syria calm as UN team visits

A group of UN ceasefire observers has toured a rebel-held neighbourhood in the central Syrian city of Homs.

A video aired on Al-Jazeera television shows three observers, wearing blue flak jackets and helmets, walking in the middle of dozens of people in a street in the Jouret el-Shayah neighbourhood.

Bystanders chanted “the people want military intervention”.

Fighting and government shelling stopped in Homs today before and during the visit of the observers. The city witnessed daily shelling shortly after the ceasefire went into effect on April 12.

An advance team of seven UN monitors has been in the country for about a week to assess compliance with an internationally brokered ceasefire.

It was the observers’ first visit to Homs.