More than 70,000 people protested in Homs Tuesday against Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad as Arab League peace monitors began to tour the flashpoint city and the army withdrew some tanks following battles that killed 34 people. The observers want to determine if Assad is keeping his promise to implement a peace plan to end his uncompromising crackdown on nine months of revolt that has generated an armed uprising, edging the country towards civil war. Activist reports just before the monitors arrived said up to a dozen tanks were seen leaving Baba Amr, one of Homs's most embattled neighbourhoods, but others were being hidden. “My house is on the eastern entrance of Baba Amr. I saw at least six tanks leave the neighborhood at around 8 in the morning,” Mohamed Saleh told Reuters by telephone. “I do not know if more remain in the area.” Activists say they want to impress on the Arab League mission that it must not let its teams be hoodwinked by the state and be shown places where life is relatively normal. The monitors started by meeting the governor of Homs, Syria's Dunia television channel said. An Arab League source said they intended to tell him where they wanted to go, based on requests from people in Homs who have witnessed the violence. Dunia showed no footage of the monitors. Syria has barred most foreign journalists from the country, making it hard to verify reports of events on the ground. The Arab mission, led by Sudanese General Mustafa Dabi, is starting with 50 monitors who arrived in Damascus Monday and will be split into five teams of ten. About 100 more monitors are to follow soon. The teams will use government transport, according to Dabi. But that arrangement likely to fuel charges by the anti-Assad opposition that the monitoring mission will be impeded and hoodwinked from the outset. Arab League delegates insist the mission will nevertheless maintain the “element of surprise” and be able to go wherever it chooses with no notice.
