Observers alone cannot end Syria unrest; U.N. chief sees al-Qaeda behind bombings

Mood said the presence of U.N. monitors since a tenuous April truce went into effect has had an “immediate calming effect” but acknowledged a surge in violence in recent days, according to AFP.

He said of some 300 observers due to be deployed in the country as part of the U.N.-backed ceasefire agreement, nearly 260 had arrived from approximately 60 U.N. member states.

“This is not a powerful tool in military terms because we are unarmed but it is a very powerful tool in (the sense) that it is the international community coming together on the ground because the Syrian people deserve a reduction of violence,” he said.

Mood said he was not surprised about skepticism over the U.N. mission and even found it “logical,” but insisted that the truce was “the only game in town,” at least for now.

“If it is anything that the Syrian people do not deserve, it is another alternative that would lead to more violence,” he said.

“So I have yet to be convinced ... by anybody that they have a good alternative.”

Some activists in Syria have been critical of the mission, saying it was essentially allowing the regime of Bashar al-Assad to push forth with a brutal crackdown against a revolt that broke out in March of last year.

More than 12,000 people have been killed in the uprising according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, including more than 900 who have died since the April 12 ceasefire went into effect.

The United Nations has blamed both sides to the conflict of violating the truce brokered by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. (Reuters)

Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday he believed al-Qaeda was responsible for two suicide car bombs that killed at least 55 people in Syria a week ago.

“A few days ago there was a huge, serious, massive terrorist attack. I believe that there must be al-Qaeda behind it. This has created again very serious problems,” Ban told a youth event at U.N. headquarters in New York, according to Reuters.

Two suicide car bombers killed 55 people and wounded 372 in Damascus on May 10, state media said, the deadliest attacks in the Syrian capital since an uprising against President Assad began in March 2011.

Damascus has maintained all along that it is facing a “terrorist” conspiracy funded and directed from abroad, not least by resource-rich Gulf monarchies, which have called for arming the fighters aiming to oust Assad.

Syria earlier this month sent the United Nations the names of 26 foreign nationals it said had been apprehended after coming to fight in Syria. It described 20 of those as members of al-Qaeda who had entered the country from Turkey.

There are 257 unarmed U.N. monitors in Syria to observe an unraveling five-week-old truce brokered by U.N.-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan.

“The deployment of monitors has some dampening effect, the number of violence has reduced but not enough, not all the violence have stopped,” Ban said. “We are trying out best efforts to protect the civilian population.”