Syria shelling continues despite UN monitors

Protests against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime continue in Douma, a suburb of Damascus

Government troops pounded a Damascus suburb with artillery and heavy machine guns as United Nations ceasefire monitors toured a rebel-held town in central Syria with army defectors, activists said on Sunday.

The shelling in Douma highlighted the need for more observers a day after the Security Council voted to expand the number of UN observers from 30 to 300 in hopes of salvaging an international truce plan marred by continued fighting between the military and rebels.

An eight-member team is already on the ground in Syria, and since Thursday has visited flashpoints of the 13-month-long conflict. Fighting generally halts temporarily when the observers are present in an area, but there has been a steady stream of reports of violence from towns and regions where they have not yet gone.

Syria's state-run news agency SANA said UN monitors visited the central city of Hama Sunday where they met with the governor, while opposition activists said observers visited Rastan, a rebel-held town south of Hama. An amateur video posted online showed two white UN vehicles driving in Rastan accompanied by a red pick up truck with the words "Free Army" written on it.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/04/22/syria-sunday.html