Cairo (dpa) – Syrian opposition activists rejected reports that the military has withdrawn from Syrian cities, showing online videos Tuesday of military vehicles in Syria's flashpoint city of Homs. On Monday, Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said that military forces had withdrawn from many cities, but added, “There is still shooting and there are snipers.” “This is the answer to Nabil al-Arabi,” said the activist in the video. “From the morning, (government forces) were still shooting at residents.” Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that three people were killed in Homs on Tuesday by government security forces. According to the Local Coordination Committee, a network of activists, at least 11 people had been killed in the restive city of Homs on Monday, and more than 20 across Syria. Homs has been the scene of an intensified military operation in the past few weeks. Syria's state-run SANA news agency on Tuesday blamed “terrorists” for a blast that hit a gas pipeline in the town al-Rastan, also located in the province of Homs. It is hard to verify reports from Syria, as the authorities have barred most foreign media and human rights groups from the country since the protests began. Syrian opposition leaders continued to express doubt in the mission's ability to provide a fair assessment of the situation in the country and halt the killing. Opposition member Mohamed Maamoun al-Homsi called Tuesday for immediate intervention by the United Nations, to protect civilians from al-Assad's violent clampdown on protesters. “Since the outbreak of the revolution, we have asked the international community to fulfill its moral and humanitarian obligation to protect the Syrian people from the war waged on them by the regime,” al-Homsi, the coordinator of the Syrian community in Egypt, told dpa. “The year 2011 will be a stigma of shame for the international community, the Arab League, and all who have remained silent on the genocide of unarmed civilians in the last ten months,” he added. Last week, the Arab League dispatched around 60 observers to Syria, to check whether the government was complying with a plan to end 10 months of deadly violence. About 75 new observers are expected to arrive to Damascus next week. On Tuesday however, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe expressed skepticism over the observer mission's chances of success. “The conditions in which this observer mission is taking place warrant being clarified,” Juppe said in an interview with France's i-Tele channel. “Can they really access information freely?,” he wondered, adding that he was “skeptical”. The United Nations estimates that more than 5,000 people have been killed in the Syrian government's clampdown against protesters demanding the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/ikx1Z Tags: Activists, Arab League, Assad, Tanks Section: Latest News, Syria
