UN observers group leave for Homs, visit airport, comment
(8 Jul 2012) The UN observer mission in Syria visited Damascus International Airport on Sunday and held talks with officials before they left the capital for Homs. Until last Sunday, the monitors had been confined to their hotel after they suspended their patrols in Syria on 16 June due to a spike in violence. Later in the day, UN spokesperson Sausan Ghosheh, commented on the purpose of recent visits to schools and hospitals by the United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS). She said despite UNSMIS suspending their activities they were still making visits to hospitals to assess the number of casualties from the violence, checking on the availability of medical supplies and determining whether they were being used for medical services or for military activities. Ghosheh said they were also visiting schools despite them being closed to check if they are "being used to shelter and house internally displaced Syrians, who have fled their homes." Meanwhile Syrian state media reported that the country's military has begun large-scale exercises simulating what they reported as defence against outside "aggression." It appeared to be an apparent warning to other countries not to intervene in the country's crisis. The exercise began ON Saturday with naval forces in a scenario where they repelled an attack from the sea, and will include air and ground forces over the next few days. Some in the Syrian opposition have appealed to the West for foreign forces to step in to stop bloodshed that they say has left more than 14-thousand dead since an uprising against President Bashar Assad began in March 2011. Special U.N. envoy Kofi Annan acknowledged in an interview published on Saturday that the international community's efforts to find a political solution to the escalating violence in Syria have failed. Annan, the special envoy for the United Nations and the Arab League, is the architect of the most prominent international plan to end the crisis in Syria. His six-point plan was to begin with a cease-fire in mid-April between government forces and rebels seeking to topple Assad. But the truce never took hold, and now the almost 300 U.N. observers sent to monitor the cease-fire have been for the majority confined to their hotels because of the escalating violence. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
