Advisers Urge Arab League to Withdraw Monitors From Syria

Reports: Eight Killed in Damascus Suburb

Protests continued in Syria today, with the focus centering on making 2012 the “year of freedom” in which ambitions for free elections and the ouster of the current regime would finally be realized.

For the most part the nationwide rallies appear to have gone off without incident, though reports are that troops attacked protesters in a Damascus suburb, killing eight. So far the Arab League monitors have not confirmed such an incident, and it was unclear if the group, which is still increasing its presence, was even in the suburb at the time.

Which is a problem leading to regular condemnations of the Arab League, since the violence always seems to occur where the monitors are not. This has led the advisory parliament to urge the league to withdraw its monitors.

Still and all, the reports of violence have dropped with the deployment of those advisors, and it seems to have virtually ended some of the bigger incidents. If the monitoring mission continues to grow in size, it seems like there will be fewer prospects for violence without them seeing.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.