Updated on
Summary The Syrian opposition urged Arab League to send observers immediately to besieged city of Homs.
The opposition Syrian National Council appealed on Sunday for the Arab League to send observers immediately to the besieged city of Homs and other hot spots of a bloody crackdown on dissent.The call came a day before a first group of Arab League observers is set to arrive in Syria to begin monitoring a deal the 22-member bloc agreed with the government in Damascus aimed at ending more than nine months of violence.Since early this morning, the (Homs) neighbourhood of Baba Amr has been under a tight siege and the threat of military invasion by an estimated 4,000 soldiers, said the SNC, the main umbrella group of opponents of President Bashar al-Assad.The Syrian National Council demands that the Arab League observers go to Homs immediately, specifically to the besieged neighbourhoods, to fulfill their stated mission, it added in a statement.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that security forces pounded Baba Amro with mortar and heavy machinegun fire, killing an undetermined number of people and wounding 124 others.It earlier reported one civilian killed in the citys Karm al-Zeitun district.The Observatory said 26 people were arrested and tortured in public in nearby Rastan, and that one civilian was killed by security forces in eastern Deir Ezzor province.It also reported five civilians shot and wounded in the capitals southern district of Sitt Zeinab.The central city of Homs has been a focal point of the Assad governments crackdown on anti-regime demonstrations, as well as the site of fierce clashes between the army and deserters.Three children who had been wounded on Saturday in military and security operations in the town of Al-Quriya died, it added, noting that reports of the deaths were delayed as the town is cut off by security forces.A nine-member advance team of Arab monitors arrived on Thursday to pave the way for the observer mission to oversee the deal aimed at ending the crackdown, which the UN estimates has killed more than 5,000 people since March.
