The Arab League has asked the monitors dispatched to Damascus to leave the country, Syrian newspaper Al-Watan said Wednesday.
The paper, which is close to officials in power in Syria, quoted one of the monitors as saying that the Arab League asked them to withdraw from Syria on Tuesday afternoon.
The monitor, who refused to be identified, said the 65-member delegation was not given any official explanation for being asked to leave.
Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Araby on 28 January ordered the delegation to end its mission in Syria, accusing the Syrian government of escalating the use of security solutions.
In a statement he issued earlier in Cairo, Mohamed al-Dabi, the head of the Arab League observer mission, said, “The rate of violence in Syria increased considerably between 24 and 27 January, particularly in Homs, Hama and Idlib.”
Syrian troops bombed residential neighborhoods in the central city of Homs Wednesday for the fifth straight day, killing scores of people.
Army and security forces killed around 300 people and injured hundreds other in their raid on Homs, the Syrian Network for Human Rights, an opposition group, said.
Meanwhile, five European countries and six Arab Gulf nations have pulled their ambassadors out of Damascus, and the US has closed its embassy in Syria. Germany, which pulled out its ambassador in Syria this month, said the ambassador would not be replaced.
More than 6,000 people have been killed since the Syrian revolt started last March, Syrian activists say.
