Dubai: The main opposition Syrian National Council has presented the Arab League with a formal request to refer the Syrian crisis to the UN Security Council, the group's spokeswoman Basma Al Qadmani said yesterday, as 23 people were killed in Idlib near the border with Turkey and another 14 prisoners in explosions.
Syrian opposition groups have called in the past for the case to be referred to the Security Council but had not made a formal request to the 22-member Arab body, which is considering keeping the monitors in place.
Syria's Sana agency said a ‘terrorist' group had set off explosions that also wounded 26 prisoners, as well as six police guards. It said the assailants had also attacked ambulances sent to the scene, on the road between the towns of Idlib and Ariha.
Al Jazeera television said army troops and deserters were also fighting in the northwestern city of Jisr Al Shughour.
League meeting
Meanwhile, the Arab League was considering the extension of its monitoring mission. Sudanese General Mohammad Al Dabi, head of the 165-strong monitoring team, was due in Cairo yesterday to submit his report to a League committee on Syria to consider the next day.
Reports and activists said more than 600 people were killed during the month-long observer mission, despatched to assess Syria's implementation of an Arab peace plan originally agreed in early November.
Burhan Galiun, head of the opposition Syrian National Council which has called for international action to protect civilians in Syria, was also in the Egyptian capital for meetings with opposition colleagues and Arab League officials.
US may close embassy
Syria, keen to avoid tougher action by the Arab League or by the United Nations, has tried to show it is complying with the plan, which demanded a halt to killings, a military pullout from the streets, the release of detainees, access for the monitors and the media, and a political dialogue with opposition groups.
"Yes, there is no complete satisfaction with Syria's cooperation with the monitoring mission," the Arab source said. "But in the absence of any international plan to deal with Syria, the best option is for the monitors to stay."
Washington warned on Friday that it may soon close its embassy in Syria due to worsening security conditions and said it believed Al Assad no longer had full control of the country.
Closing the embassy would not amount to cutting diplomatic ties, but would reduce direct US contacts with Damascus.
Fisherman killed
Syrian forces killed one Lebanese fisherman and wounded another when they seized their boat off the Lebanese-Syrian coast yesterday, a relative said.
The area is known for smuggling and Syrian security services have become especially sensitive to contraband runs since a popular revolt against the regime of President Bashar Al Assad erupted 10 months ago.
Ahmad Hamad said his wife had crossed into Syria and had found their 16-year-old son Maher Hamad dead in a Syrian state hospital.
He said a second fisherman had been wounded and the third was being interrogated by Syrian security forces.
— Reuters
