Syria Live Blog

The United States warned that heightened violence in Syria threatens the sending of a full UN ceasefire observer mission.

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said on Monday new attacks by government forces "call into question the wisdom and viability" of sending the full 200 international monitors.

The first unarmed UN military observers started work in Damascus on Monday. The UN Security Council has said, however, that the full force cannot go if there is a safety threat.

"We are gravely concerned ... that the violence continues, that the government seems to continue, if not in recent days intensify, bombardment in Homs in particular," Rice told reporters.

The government violence was "unacceptable" and against commitments made to UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, she added.

Should the cessation of hostilities started last Thursday collapse the United States and the UN Security Council believe "it will call into question the wisdom and viability of sending in the full monitoring presence," Rice said.

A UN Security Council resolution passed on Saturday approved only an advance mission of 30 observers. The full force will require a new UN resolution.

Syrian forces shelled the flashpoint city of Homs on Monday and killed 12 civilians in battles with rebels in Idlib, activists said.

[Source: AFP] 

A UN-Arab League peace plan for Syria has only a three per cent chance of working, the emir of Qatar said on a visit to Rome, as a UN-backed ceasefire was marred by ongoing violence.

Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani told a press conference on Monday that the chances for success "are no higher than three percent", and that the Syrian people should not be supported through peaceful means but "with arms".

Qatar has taken a hawkish stance in favour of the year-old rebellion against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Prime Minister Mario Monti, who stressed the "close collaboration" between Italy and Qatar on the topic of Syria, said Rome was willing to send in observers to help oversee a truce aimed at ending 13 months of bloodshed.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday that 11,117 people have been killed in 13 months of unrest, 7,972 civilians and 3,145 military and gunmen, including fewer than 600 rebel fighters.

Earlier this month, Syria's UN envoy demanded that Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Western nations not undermine Annan's peace mission by paying and supporting opposition groups.

[Source: AFP] 

UN human rights investigators said that they had received reports of shelling and arrests by Syrian forces since the ceasefire, as well as the executions of some soldiers captured by rebel forces, although the level of violence was generally lower. 

In a statement, the team led by Brazilian expert Paulo Pinheiro voiced concern at what it called the "deteriorating humanitarian situation" in Syria where tens of thousands of civilians fled escalating fighting in the run-up to the truce that took effect last week. 

It acknowledged on Monday a "generally lower level of violence" in some parts of Syria since the truce, but said "it is seriously concerned over accounts of a number of incidents since then, including the shelling of the Khaldieh neighbourhood and other districts in Homs by government forces and the use of heavy weaponry, such as machine guns in other areas, including Idlib and some suburbs of Damascus."

"The commission is also concerned by reports of new arrests, especially in Hama and Aleppo," it said in its statement.

[Source: Reuters] 

Al Jazeera's Inside Syria programme speaks to Hussein Ibish, Haitham Alsibahie, and Hussein al-Harbi about what the ceasefire plan and the deployment of the first handful of UN monitors to Syria means for the country.

Read our news story for more detail and context: Clashes in Syria as UN monitors go to work

For more of Al Jazeera's special coverage visit our spotlight page - Syria: The War Within  and the Inside Syria programme's page.