Arab monitors head to flashpoint Syria city

Syria: Arab observers were headed to Syria's third largest city Homs yesterday following reports that 34 people had been killed in 24 hours in and around one of the main hubs of nine months of protest.

The head of the hard-won Arab League mission, veteran Sudanese military intelligence officer General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi, said he was on the road to the city and that the authorities were so far affording every assistance.

"I am going to Homs. Till now, they have been very cooperative," Dabi told AFP.

The mission is part of an Arab plan endorsed by Syria on November 2 that calls for the withdrawal of security forces from towns and residential districts, a halt to violence against civilians and the release of detainees.

Since signing the deal, President Bashar al-Assad's regime has been accused of intensifying a bloody crackdown on anti-government protests, which have shown no signs of abating since they erupted in mid-March.

The United Nations says more than 5,000 people have lost their lives. The bloodshed in Homs has sparked a mounting international outcry and oppposition calls for foreign intervention.

The leader of opposition umbrella group, the Syrian National Council, Burhan Ghaliun, urged UN and Arab League intervention "to put an end to this tragedy," and called on the UN Security Council to "adopt the Arab League's plan and ensure that it is applied."

"It is better if the UN Security Council takes this (Arab League) plan, adopts and provides the means for its application," Ghaliun said. AFP