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Turkish government has called an emergency security meeting amid reports that one of its fighter jets was shot down by Syrian security forces.
The Turkish military earlier said it had lost contact with an F-4 Phantom over the Mediterranean Sea on Friday morning, south-west of Hatay province.
It did not confirm reports that Syrian air defense forces were responsible.
But local media are quoting Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying “the other side has expressed regret”.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan also revealed that the two crew members were safe.
Turkish government has called an emergency security meeting amid reports that one of its fighter jets was shot down by Syrian security forces
Relations between Turkey and Syria, once close allies, have deteriorated sharply since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011.
The Turkish military said it lost radio contact with the F-4 at 11:58 local time on Friday while it was flying over Hatay, about 90 minutes after it took off from Erhac airbase in the province of Malatya, to the north-west.
“Search-and-rescue efforts have started immediately,” a statement said.
The private news channel, NTV, later cited unnamed military sources as saying that the plane had crashed off Hatay’s Mediterranean coast, in Syrian territorial waters, but that there had been no border violation.
The Turkish and Syrian coast guards were collaborating in the search for the two crew members and the plane, NTV reported.
Witnesses in the Syrian coastal city of Latakia meanwhile said Syrian air defenses had shot down an unidentified aircraft near the town of Ras al-Basit.
Lebanon’s al-Manar television channel – controlled by Lebanon’s Hezbollah Shia movement, an ally of the Syrian government – also reported that Syrian security sources had said that “Syrian air defenses shot down a Turkish warplane and hit another in Syrian airspace”.
There was no immediate confirmation from Turkish officials, but later it was announced that Recep Tayyip Erdogan would be holding an emergency meeting with his top military and intelligence chiefs to discuss the missing plane.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan was also said to have told Turkish reporters on a flight back from Brazil that “the other side have expressed regret” over the downing of the F-4, and also that the pilots had been recovered.
Syrian government forces have renewed their attack on the city of Homs, one of the focal points of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.
Video published on the internet purportedly from Homs showed intermittent shelling and black smoke.
UN mediator Kofi Annan is concerned civilians have been trapped in Homs and al-Haffa, a town in Latakia province also said to be under attack.
The US says it fears the government may be planning “another massacre”.
Kofi Annan’s spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi, said civilians had been trapped in both Homs and al-Haffa.
Kofi Annan was demanding immediate entry to al-Haffa for UN military observers be allowed, he added.
Syrian government forces have renewed their attack on the city of Homs, one of the focal points of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad
As joint envoy for the UN and the Arab League, Kofi Annan brokered a six-point peace plan, including a ceasefire which came into nominal effect two months ago but has now been virtually abandoned.
Syrian army appeared to be using an unmanned surveillance drone to select buildings as targets for shelling.
A steady stream of mortar rounds landing in the old city of Homs at a rate of about one a minute.
The UN team – which has been trying for two days to gain access to the old city – has still not succeeded.
All the UN can do is stand by and watch.
US state department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said it was “deeply alarmed” at “reports from inside Syria that the regime may be organizing another massacre”.
Such an attack could happen, it suggested, in al-Haffa or the towns of Deir el-Zour, Homs or Hama, or in the suburbs of the capital, Damascus.
According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 74 people were killed across Syria on Monday.
An activist website, the Violations Documenting Centre, said there had been 29 deaths in the past week from bombardment in al-Haffa. All but three of the dead were civilians, it added.
These reports cannot be confirmed independently because Syria heavily restricts journalists’ freedom of movement.
The Syrian government blames the violence on foreign-backed armed terrorist gangs.
Separately, UN monitors and human rights activists said Syrian government forces had used helicopters to bombard the town of Rastan, in Homs province.
The town has been under intermittent army shelling “for months”, the Observatory said.
UN spokeswoman Sausan Ghosheh said monitors had seen Syrian helicopters firing on Rastan and another rebel stronghold, Talbisa.
In Talbisa, rebels from the Free Syrian Army captured soldiers from government forces, she added.
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Syria has decided to expel the ambassadors of several Western states, a week after governments around the world expelled its top diplomats.
The envoys of the US, UK, France and Turkey were among 17 diplomats designated “personae non gratae”.
President Bashar al-Assad blamed “foreign meddling” for Syria’s divisions in a speech on Sunday.
The move came as activists said at least seven people had been killed in violence across Syria on Tuesday.
Syria has decided to expel the ambassadors of several Western states, a week after governments around the world expelled its top diplomats
Four civilians were killed overnight in a “huge military operation” in Kafrouaid, a village in the Jabal al-Zawiya area of the northern province of Idlib, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Troops and pro-regime militiamen backed by tanks were also reported to have stormed the town of Kfar Zita in the central province of Hama, and killed two rebel fighters in the Mediterranean port city of Latakia.
Several villages south-west of the central city of Homs earlier came under intense army artillery- and mortar-fire, leaving three people dead, according to the Local Co-ordination Committees, an activist network.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to be pressed by EU officials to take a stronger line on the crisis in Syria during a summit in St Petersburg.
EU member states want Russia to put pressure on its ally to withdraw heavy weapons from cities and comply fully with UN envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan.
Russia and China are also resisting US and European calls to condemn President Bashar al-Assad and seek his removal.
On Sunday, Bashar al-Assad denied his forces had any role in the Houla massacre.
In a televised address, President Bashar al-Assad told parliament the killing of more than 108 people in their homes, including 49 children, was an “ugly crime” that even “monsters” would not carry out.
Witnesses have blamed pro-government militiamen for the massacre, which has triggered international condemnation and led to several countries expelling Syrian diplomats in protest.
Bashar al-Assad said the only way to resolve the crisis was through political dialogue, and that “foreign meddling” was to blame for Syria’s divisions.
European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton are among those attending Monday’s summit.
On Sunday, Vladimir Putin invited the EU leaders for dinner ahead of the talks at a lavish estate on the outskirts of the city.
Vladimir Putin will hold talks with Jose Manuel Barroso and Herman Van Rompuy
European diplomats regard the meeting as a chance to renew ties with Vladimir Putin since his return to the presidency earlier this month.
The leaders are also expected to discuss trade and Iran’s controversial nuclear programme. Russia will also be looking to speed up moves towards visa free travel in Europe.
“We need to make sure that Russia is using fully its leverage in convincing the [Assad] regime to implement [the peace plan],” an EU official quoted by the Reuters news agency said.
“The Russian side has certainly not been very helpful in finding solutions in terms of a political way out.”
Moscow insists it is not protecting Bashar al-Assad but says his removal cannot be a precondition for political dialogue.
Baroness Catherine Ashton, who met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov before Sunday’s dinner, said in a statement: “Russia’s role is crucial for the success of Annan’s plan.”
She said the EU wanted to “work closely with Russia to find a way to end the violence”.
The statement added that Baroness Catherine Ashton had spoken to Kofi Annan by telephone on Sunday and they had agreed that the crisis was at “a critical point”.
Analysts say pressure is growing on Moscow to concede that the initiative is stalled and to promote a compromise in which President Bashar al-Assad stands down to allow a transition of power.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday that she had “made it very clear” to Sergei Lavrov in a telephone conversation that the focus was shifting to a political transition.
“Assad’s departure does not have to be a precondition, but it should be an outcome so the people of Syria have a chance to express themselves,” she said during a visit to Stockholm.
Although the summit is not expected to produce any major breakthrough in relations between Russia and the EU, it is still important.
EU leaders will be able to reacquaint themselves with Vladimir Putin and it is also a chance to gauge what kind of relationship Moscow and Brussels are likely to have during his six-year presidency.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says Russian policy will contribute to a potential civil war in Syria.
Hillary Clinton’s comments came after Russia and China renewed opposition to tougher UN Security Council action.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has repeated a warning that Syria could be moving towards “catastrophic” civil war, in the wake of the Houla massacre.
Rebel commanders are split on whether to abandon a ceasefire if Syrian forces do not withdraw to barracks.
The FSA’s Colonel Qassim Saadeddine in Homs said that if there was no government response by Friday lunchtime the FSA would consider itself “no longer bound” by the plan.
But the FSA head, General Riyad Asaad, later denied the deadline existed.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says Russian policy will contribute to a potential civil war in Syria
Instead, he urged peace envoy Kofi Annan to issue a statement declaring his peace plan to have failed.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has come under intensified pressure to adhere to the ceasefire plan since the Houla massacre, in which more than 100 people – many of them children – died.
Hillary Clinton, speaking on a visit to Denmark, said the case for military intervention was growing stronger every day.
“[The Russians] are telling me they don’t want to see a civil war. I have been telling them their policy is going to help to contribute to a civil war,” she told an audience in Copenhagen.
Ban Ki-moon, speaking at a conference in Turkey, said UN monitors had not been sent to Syria “just to bear witness to the slaughter of innocents”.
“We are not there to play the role of passive observer to unspeakable atrocities,” he said.
“The massacre of civilians of the sort seen last weekend could plunge Syria into catastrophic civil war – a civil war from which the country would never recover.”
Colonel Qassim Saadeddine’s ultimatum, citing the Houla massacre, was given in a video released online, in which he said the government had to “implement an immediate ceasefire, withdraw its troops, tanks and artillery from Syrian cities and villages”.
“It should also allow immediate humanitarian aid to all affected areas and free all detainees… The regime should also enter into a real and serious negotiation through the United Nations to hand over power to the Syrian people,” he went on.
But General Riyad Asaad, speaking to al-Jazeera by phone from Turkey, insisted the FSA was “committed to the Kofi Annan plan and committed to international resolutions and implementing this plan”.
“There is no deadline; however, we hope that Kofi Annan will issue a statement to announce the failure of this plan,” he said.
The UN Human Rights Council will hold a special session on Syria on Friday looking into the killings, officials said.
As many as 15,000 people have been killed since the revolt against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad began in March of last year.
Major Western countries have decided to expel senior Syrian diplomats following the killing of 108 people in the Houla region of Syria on Friday.
France, the U.S., UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands all took action against Syria’s envoys.
Most of the victims in Houla were summarily executed, the UN says.
Residents said pro-government shabiha militia had entered homes and opened fire indiscriminately.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told UN-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan in Damascus that terrorists had stepped up their operations across Syria, including killing and kidnapping. His remarks were quoted by state TV.
UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said initial investigations had suggested that most of those killed in the village of Taldou, near Houla, were summarily executed.
Rupert Colville said 49 children and 34 women were among the victims. UN observers who visited Taldou said many of the victims had been killed by close-range gunfire or knife attacks.
Eyewitnesses said pro-government shabiha militiamen had carried out the killings. Survivors said they had hidden or played dead.
Syrian leaders insist that the massacre was the work of “terrorists”, aiming to derail the peace process and provoke intervention by Western powers.
Major Western countries have decided to expel senior Syrian diplomats following the killing of 108 people in the Houla region of Syria on Friday
US state department spokesperson Victoria Nuland announced that the Syrian charge d’affaires in Washington had been given 72 hours to leave the country.
“We hold the Syrian government responsible for this slaughter of innocent lives [in Houla],” Victoria Nuland said.
Canada denounced the Syrian government’s “heinous and murderous acts” while Australia described the Houla massacre as a “hideous and brutal crime”.
Spain talked of “unacceptable repression” and France’s new Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, described President Assad as “the murderer of his people”.
The French government said “the murderous folly” of the Damascus regime threatened regional security.
The Dutch declared Syria’s ambassador to the Netherlands, who is also ambassador to Belgium and lives in Brussels, as “persona non grata”.
Fellow EU state Bulgaria said it was expelling Syria’s interim ambassador and two other diplomats in protest at the killings in Houla.
Despite the show of protest, it is unclear whether the mass diplomatic expulsions will change much on the ground.
Syria’s charge d’affaires in London has been given seven days to leave.
“The international community is appalled by the violence that has continued, by the behavior of the regime, by the murder of so many innocent people,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague said.
President Assad said the success of Kofi Annan’s peace plan depended on halting what he called terrorist actions and stopping arms-smuggling.
Kofi Annan conveyed “the grave concern of the international community about the violence in Syria, including in particular the recent events in Houla”, the UN envoy’s office was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.
“He conveyed in frank terms his view to President Assad that the six-point plan cannot succeed without bold steps to stop the violence and release detainees, and stressed the importance of full implementation of the plan.”
Russia, which supplies arms to the Syrian government and has blocked UN resolutions calling for action against Damascus, has blamed both sides for Friday’s massacre.
Its Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, expressed concern that “certain countries” were beginning to use the Houla massacre “as a pretext for voicing demands relating to the need for military measures to be taken”.
A meeting of the so-called Friends of Syria group is to meet in France in July, President Francois Hollande’s office said.
EU foreign ministers are set to impose a travel ban and asset freeze on Syria First Lady Asma al-Assad, diplomats say.
The UK-born wife of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad is among 12 Syrians to be added to a number of figures, including the president, who are already subject to sanctions.
It was unclear whether the ban would stop Asma al-Assad from travelling to the UK.
Anti-government activists accuse the regime of killing thousands of protesters over the past year.
In recent weeks, the Damascus government has stepped up its efforts to crush pockets of rebellion in cities including Homs and Hama.
Every day, activists report dozens of deaths and more protests.
President Bashar al-Assad has promised political reform, but observers and his opponents have dismissed his plans as window-dressing.
EU foreign ministers are set to impose a travel ban and asset freeze on Syria First Lady Asma al-Assad
For years there was a perception that Asma al-Assad’s Western upbringing could encourage reform in Syria.
Asma al-Assad, 36, who is of Syrian descent but spent much of her life in west London, has generally played a low-key role in the regime.
However, in February Asma al-Assad wrote to Britain’s Times newspaper to explain why she thought her husband was still the right man to lead Syria.
Last week activists released some 3,000 emails they said were from private accounts belonging to Bashar al-Assad and his wife.
The messages, which have not been independently verified, suggested Asma al-Assad continued to shop online for luxury goods even after the uprising was in full swing.
The UN says at least 8,000 people have died since the uprising against Bashar al-Assad’s regime began last March.
Bashar al-Assad and his allies say terrorist and armed gangs are behind the violence, and say hundreds of security personnel have been killed fighting them.
Damascus bomb blasts over the weekend have been followed by firefight between the rebel Free Syria Army and the forces of President Bashar al-Assad.
Witnesses say the sound of machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades can be heard from the district of al-Mezze.
The central neighborhood hosts several security facilities and is one of the most heavily guarded areas.
The UN estimates more than 8,000 people have now died in a year-long uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.
Al-Mezze has previously been the scene of large anti-government protests.
One resident told Reuters news agency that there was “fighting near Hamada supermarket and the sound of explosions there and elsewhere in the neighborhood”.
The resident added: “Security police have blocked several side streets and the street lighting has been cut off.”
Opposition activist Amer al-Sadeq said he had spoken to a contact in al-Mezze who reported four blasts within five minutes and then heavy gunfire.
Al-Mezze is an upmarket residential area but has a substantial security presence. Close by is the Mezze 86 district, a security stronghold, whose residents are loyal to President Assad.
Early last month, residents of 86 district fired at protesters who took to the streets calling for an end of President Assad’s rule.
Damascus bomb blasts over the weekend have been followed by firefight between the rebel Free Syria Army and the forces of President Bashar al-Assad
In January the Free Syria Army briefly seized several Damascus suburbs.
The latest incident follows bomb blasts in Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo over the weekend.
The car bomb that exploded in Aleppo on Sunday killed at least two people and injured 30 others.
A day earlier, at least 27 people were reported to have been killed and 97 wounded in two explosions in the capital.
State TV described the blasts as “terrorist” attacks.
However, activists have accused the authorities of staging incidents to discredit opposition groups.
As diplomatic efforts to end the crisis continue, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Jakob Kellenberger, has travelled to Moscow to meet Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and ask the Russian government to press Syria to allow more humanitarian access.
The ICRC says that, in the worst-hit areas, a daily pause in the fighting of at least two hours was needed for the evacuation of the wounded and to allow in food and medicine.
Russia is a key ally of Syria and, along with China, has thwarted attempts to form a UN resolution condemning the repression.
Sergei Lavrov is likely to say that while Russia is engaging with Syria, it cannot tell the government there what to do.
There is some frustration in Moscow with the speed at which Damascus is responding to some initiatives, particularly that of UN and Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan.
In another development, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces beat and arrested senior opposition figure Mohammed Sayyed Rassas on Sunday.
Mohammed Sayyed Rassas, a leader of the National Co-ordinating Body for Democratic Change (NCB), had been taking part in a protest march in Damascus, the group said.
President Bashar al-Assad is trying to quell an increasingly armed rebellion that sprang from a fierce crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy protests a year ago.
He insists his troops are fighting “armed gangs” seeking to destabilize Syria.
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Several civilians and police officers have been killed in two separate explosions in the Syrian capital Damascus, state TV announced.
A broadcast described the blasts as “terrorist” attacks. Preliminary reports suggested vehicles packed with explosives had been detonated, it said.
It said intelligence and police buildings were hit and the cause was not known.
Details of the reports cannot be independently verified as access to Syria for journalists is restricted.
Dozens of people have been killed in bomb attacks in Damascus and the second city Aleppo in recent months, which the government also blamed on terrorists.
The opposition has accused the authorities of staging some of those incidents.
The latest blasts came two days after the first anniversary of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, which UN estimates say has left more than 8,000 people dead.
State TV showed pictures of charred bodies, burned-out vehicles and bloodstains on the streets.
It described one body as being that of a terrorist.
It said buildings housing the criminal police and aviation intelligence had been targeted.
Opposition sources also said security buildings had been hit.
Fresh anti-government protests were held on Friday in cities across Syria.
And there was a return of violence to the Damascus suburbs – the first significant fighting there since government forces imposed military control some weeks ago.
Clashes between rebel fighters and the army were reported in several other parts of the country.
President Bashar al-Assad insists his troops are fighting “armed gangs” seeking to destabilize Syria.
On Friday, UN and Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan renewed calls for an end to fighting and for unimpeded humanitarian aid for Syria.
Speaking to UN Security Council members, Kofi Annan said he was sending a team to Damascus to discuss setting up a new international monitoring mission.
The international community remains divided on Syria, with Russia and China both blocking UN Security Council resolutions on Syria and aid groups from 27 countries urging them to condemn the government’s use of violence.
But the two permanent members have backed Kofi Annan’s peace mission.
More than 200 people were killed by Syrian government forces which bombarded the city of Homs with tank shells and mortars, opposition groups say.
Activists say a massacre has occurred but the government denied attacking, accusing the opposition of propaganda.
But opposition fighters, though outgunned, plan to launch a “general offensive”.
A vote is expected later on a UN draft resolution, despite Syrian ally Russia voicing strong objections.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday the current draft included measures against President Bashar al-Assad’s government, but not against armed opposition groups.
Sergei Lavrov said Moscow had tabled amendments to the text to try and ensure the UN would not appear to be taking sides in a civil war.
Homs appears to have come under a “pretty relentless” bombardment, which targeted areas outside government control.
Funerals have already begun in large numbers, amid reports of a death toll as high as 260.
Russia’s foreign minister said it would be a “scandal” to ask the UN Security Council to vote on the resolution in its current form.
Russia is Syria’s main ally on the council, and has said it will veto any resolution calling on President Bashar al-Assad to stand down.
Moscow has continued to supply weapons to Syria despite the protests.
However, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said the Homs assault was a “further step in savagery” and warned against a veto.
“Those who would hinder the adoption of such a resolution would assume a heavy responsibility in history,” he said.
In another blow to the Assad regime, Tunisia’s government said it had begun the process of expelling the Syrian ambassador and withdrawing recognition from the government.
A death toll higher than 200 at Homs would make it by quite a long way the bloodiest day since protests began.
More than 200 people were killed by Syrian government forces which bombarded the city of Homs with tank shells and mortars, opposition groups say
Homs was one of the first cities to join anti-Assad protests, and became one of the focal points of dissent after government forces fired on crowds in April last year. Many army defectors have sought refuge in the city.
Activists said most of the deaths were in the residential area of Khalidiya.
Reports said a hospital had been destroyed in Khalidiya, and residents said more than 30 houses had been wrecked in the barrage.
“We were sitting inside our house when we started hearing the shelling. We felt shells were falling on our heads,” Khalidiya resident Waleed told Reuters news agency.
Video footage emerged on the internet showing several bodies covered in blood with a voiceover saying the bombardment was still going on.
State media dismissed the Homs casualty reports as a “hysterical campaign of incitement” by armed gangs designed to influence the UN.
“The civilians shown by satellite television stations are citizens who were kidnapped and killed by armed gunmen,” said a report on Sana news agency.
International media outlets are restricted in Syria, making it difficult to verify the claims of either side.
Meanwhile, activists have attacked Syrian embassies around the world
• Around 50 mainly Syrian protesters broke into their country’s embassy in Athens early on Saturday, smashing windows and
• About 20 protesters forced their way into the Syrian embassy in Berlin late on Friday and damaged offices, police said. German TV showed a Syrian resistance flag hanging from one of the windows and graffiti sprayed on the outside of the building
• About 150 demonstrators gathered outside the Syrian embassy in London early on Saturday and five people were arrested after entering the building
• In Cairo, protesters stormed the embassy building, smashing furniture and setting fire to parts of the building
Syria has been gripped by nationwide protests against Bashar al-Assad’s regime for almost a year.
The UN stopped estimating the death toll after it passed 5,400 in January, saying it was too difficult to confirm numbers.
The Syrian government says at least 2,000 members of its security forces have been killed fighting “armed gangs and terrorists”.
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At least 11 people have died in north-west Syria after a police van carrying prisoners was blown up on the Idlib-Ariha highway, reports say.
Sana, the official Syrian news agency, said the police van was attacked by an “armed group” on the Idlib-Ariha highway. An opposition group confirmed the incident but did not say who carried it out.
The news came as the Arab League hears a report by monitors observing implementation of its peace plan.
The league is due to decide whether to extend its mission in the coming days.
The 165-strong mission expired on Thursday with no sign of a halt to the government’s crackdown on protesters.
Analysts say the league is expected to renew the mission for another month.
The reports said Saturday’s attack happened in the Mastoumeh area in Idlib province.
Sana initially said 14 people had died, and 26 prisoners and six police were injured.
An ambulance which came to the aid of victims was also attacked, the agency added.
The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the number of dead at 11. It said the van had been hit by several roadside bombs.
No-one has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Violence across Syria on Friday resulted in seven people being killed by security forces, opposition groups said.
The UN Security Council was told earlier this month that 400 people had been killed during the monitors’ first 10 days in Syria.
The UN had previously said that more than 5,000 had died since protests against President Bashar al-Assad erupted last March.
The government in Damascus says that some 2,000 members of the security forces have also been killed combating “armed gangs and terrorists”.
In a separate development, the US says it is considering closing its embassy in Damascus because of increasing safety concerns.
Officials in Washington say they are talking to the Syrian authorities, as well as to the British and Chinese governments, who have embassies nearby. But no final decision had been taken.
The conclusions reached by the Arab League mission’s head, Sudanese Gen Mohammed al-Dabi, had been due to be discussed by a committee of ministers on Saturday, but unconfirmed reports say ministerial talks will not now be held earlier than Sunday.
The panel is chaired by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad al-Thani, whose country has previously suggested sending Arab peacekeepers to Syria.
Damascus has firmly rejected the idea.
It appears that there is no clearly thought out alternative to the monitoring mission, and no appetite – as yet – for a radical change of course.
League officials have already hinted that the most likely outcome will be to renew the mission for another month, possibly doubling the number of observers on the ground.
Last week, the head of the Arab League’s Cairo operations room, Adnan al-Khudeir, said the observers would remain in 17 difference places around Syria until the final decision is made.
Although the mandate of the observer mission came to an end formally on Thursday, the agreement covering it provides for an extension for a second month if both sides agree.
So far there has been no suggestion from Damascus that the monitors should be withdrawn.
A seven-month-old boy was decapitated by a Syrian army officer who cracked down on people suspected of sheltering rebels after a group of soldiers stormed into a house, reports say.
According to a soldier from the Syrian army’s 11th Armoured Division, his commanding officer snatched the child from the living room when they found the man they were looking for was out.
The officer then apparently laid the child on the floor, pulled out his army knife and decapitated the little boy in front of his horrified mother.
According to The Sunday Times, the officer then hung the child’s head above the front door and screamed that he would do the same to another child unless the man gave up.
The incident allegedly took place last week in the north-west town of Jisr al-Shughur during a heavy security operation.
Mohammed, a 22-year-old soldier, told The Sunday Times: “That was when I decided to defect. I’ll have to live with that memory for ever.
“We did things I never want to remember.”
There is mounting evidence that President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have been deliberately targeting children in a bid to crush unrest.
The UN, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have also said there are concerns of war crimes and torture being carried out on children.
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Sunday that the “old order” of one-man rule and family dynasties was over in the Middle East.
Ban Ki-moon urged President Bashar al-Assad to halt the bloodshed and said revolutions during the Arab Spring showed that people would no longer accept tyranny.
An estimated 5,000 people have been killed during the brutal crackdown on 10 months of unrest, with an estimated 400 dead in the last three weeks alone.
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