DAMASCUS, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- Head of the Arab observers' mission in restive Idlib province in northern Syria said Monday that there were no "military aspects and no gunmen" there and the situation was "quiet."
Abdul-Latif al-Jibali said in a statement published Monday by the private al-Watan newspaper that the situation in Idlib was "quiet," with no military aspects or gunmen, and that he noticed the atmosphere was "dead due to the lack of any activity in it."
Al-Jibali, whose mission in Syria started a week ago, said the team had visited the national hospital and toured parts of the area, noting that some observers went with opposition figures to visit local residents.
He said that the city witnessed two demonstrations on Friday, each of which was attended by about 10,000 people. According to him, Syrian authorities had done nothing to disperse demonstrators.
"I saw two handcuffed bodies of two policemen with signs of violence on them at the national hospital in Idlib," he said, adding that "the two men were killed on Saturday," but there were not tanks or armored vehicles in the streets.
In the central province of Homs, al-Watan said some of the observers visited districts of al-Armen, al-Zahra, al-Abyssiyeh, Akramah, Bab Dreib and Wadi al-Zahab, and interviewed residents there. It added that observers also visited a military hospital in Homs and met with a number of wounded.
The observers have so far traveled to a number of cities including Daraa and Homs, and preparations are underway for sending 47 observers from the Gulf Cooperation Council states (GCC) and Iraq to Syria, according to AL sources.
Adnan Issa al-Khoudhir, head of the Arab League (AL) operation room for the observer mission, said at a press conference that "22 observers from Iraq and 25 others from the GCC will be dispatched to Syria."
Observers started their mission last Tuesday and toured a number of restive areas in the country, mainly in central Syria and the flashpoint city of Daraa in the south.
In November, Syria signed an AL-sponsored plan providing for ending all acts of violence, releasing all detainees and halting all armed aspects across the country.
The first item of the plan provides for sending some 150 observers to visit hospitals, prisons and restive areas to determine to what extent Syrian authorities have committed themselves to the items of the Arab plan.
Meanwhile, the advance team of the AL observers to Syria returned to Egypt's capital Cairo on Sunday after a ten-day visit to unrest-hit Syria, Egypt's official news agency MENA reported.
The 11-member team, led by AL chief Nabil al-Arabi's assistant Samir Saif al-Yazal, was assigned to prepare for the observer delegations and to take part in some monitoring of the situation in Syria.
Yazal refused to give any details about the situation in Syria, saying any new developments will be published in statements through the AL general secretariat.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-01/02/c_131339556.htm
