An advance team from the Arab League arrived in Syria on Thursday ahead of the deployment of monitors to judge whether Damascus is implementing a peace plan it agreed last month. The plan entails a withdrawal of troops from the streets, release of prisoners and dialogue with the opposition. Thousands have died in a crackdown on protests against President Bashar Al-Assad and, increasingly, in fighting between mutinous troops and security forces. Arab League sources have said the advance team, led by top League official Samir Seif Al-Yazal, comprises a dozen people, including financial, administrative and legal experts to ensure monitors have free access across Syria. The main group of around 150 observers is to arrive by the end of December. Events in Syria are hard to verify because authorities have banned most independent reporting. The escalating death toll has raised the spectre of civil war in Syria with Assad still trying to stamp out protests with troops and tanks despite international sanctions. Turkey has condemned Syria's policy of “oppression which has turned the country into a bloodbath”.
