Beirut: Syrian security forces fired tear gas at tens of thousands of protesters who were heading towards the centre of Syria's troubled city of Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday.
"There are at least 70,000 protesters. They are marching towards the city centre and the security forces are trying to stop them. They are firing tear gas," the Observatory's Rami Abdul Rahman told Reuters.
The protesters seemed to have been emboldened by the visit of Arab monitors who were in Homs on a mission to assess whether Syria has ended nine months of crackdown on protests against Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.
Protesters were reportedly shouting to the Arab monitors in Homs: "We want international protection".
Protesters stage a sit in
Earlier Tuesday it had been reported that some 30,000 opponents of the Al Assad regime were holding a sit-in in the Khaldiyeh neighbourhood in the centre of Homs, the British organisation said in a statement sent to AFP in Nicosia.
Sabotage
News of the rally came as the official SANA news agency reported that saboteurs blew up a gas pipeline in Homs on Tuesday.
"An armed terrorist group targeted in a sabotage operation at 3:00 am (0100 GMT) on Tuesday a pipeline carrying gas between Abd Kafar and Rastan," said SANA, referring to towns in Homs.
Tanks
The army has begun withdrawing tanks from Homs, Syrian opposition activists said earlier on Tuesday.
Mohammad Saleh said that heavy bombardment stopped on Tuesday morning and tanks were seen pulling out of the streets.
Another activist in Homs said he saw armoured vehicles leaving early Tuesday on a highway that leads to the city of Palmyra to the east.
For days, military forces had pounded Homs with artillery despite agreeing to an Arab League plan to stop the bloodshed.
The Arab monitoring mission is meant to ensure the government complies with the deal to halt the nine-month crackdown.
League observer claims widespread killings
Meanwhile, a member of the advance Arab League delegation monitoring the situation in Syria has said government forces are committing acts of "annihilation" against civilians.
A Syrian activist claimed the Egyptian observer Mustashar Mahjoub was injured in shelling during a tour of the Homs neighbourhoods. A League official, however, denied any observer was injured.
In an interview to Al Arabiya, an emotional Mahjoub refused to say how and when he was wounded, but said he witnessed intense shelling of Baba Amro, a residential area in Homs. "I can't even explain what is happening. This is not the time for meetings... it's time for action," he said.
"On Sunday night, our people managed to take four observers from their Damascus hotel without the knowledge of the Syrian government to show them the reality of what is happening inside the neighbourhoods of Baba Amro and Khalidiya," a Syrian activist told DPA.
Amateur video shot by activists showed carnage in a Homs street, and locals said they were afraid to leave their homes yesterday as tanks appeared to target residential areas with machine gun and mortar fire.
20 more killed
In the video, four bodies of what appear to be male civilians lie bloodied under fallen power lines in a narrow alleyway of Baba Amro. "This is Baba Amro, December 26, 2011, and the random shelling is still falling on the neighbourhood," a voice shouts over screams.
At least 20 people were killed ahead of the expected arrival of the main League observers yesterday.
