UN monitors tour embattled Syrian city

UN observers visited an embattled neighbourhood in the central Syrian city of Homs today.

The Syrian state news agency SANA said the observers toured the Khaldiyeh district, which has seen heavy government shelling and clashes between Syrian forces and rebels.

The team in Homs is part of an advance team of 15 UN monitors in Syria who are trying to salvage a peace plan brokered by special envoy Kofi Annan that aims to end the country’s 13-month-old crisis.

Under the plan, a ceasefire is supposed to lead to talks between President Bashar Assad and the opposition on a political solution to the conflict that has killed more than 9,000 people.

But the plan has been deeply troubled since the truce began on April 12. The regime has kept up its attacks on opposition strongholds, while rebel fighters continue to ambush security forces. Defying a major truce provision, the Syrian military has failed to withdraw tanks and soldiers from the streets.

Most analysts say the plan has little chance of succeeding, though it could temporarily bring down the level of daily violence.

This has largely been the case in Homs, Syria’s third largest city, which has emerged as the heart of the uprising. Regime forces pounded parts of Homs for months before two UN monitors moved into a hotel there last week.

Since then, the level of violence has dropped, although gunbattles still frequently break out.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has blamed the regime for widespread ceasefire violations - prompting Syria to hit back that his comments were “outrageous” and accusing him of bias.

The spat has further stoked concerns among the Syrian opposition and its Western supporters that Assad is merely playing for time to avoid compliance with a plan that – if fully implemented – would likely sweep him out of office.

Under the peace plan, the UN is to deploy as many as 300 truce monitors. One hundred should be in the country by mid-May, and the head of the observer team, Norwegian Maj Gen Robert Mood, is to arrive in Damascus today to assume command, according to the mission’s spokesman, Neeraj Singh.