Syria unrest: Homs residents confront Arab League team

"The Arab observers were eagerly awaited especially in Homs"

Angry protesters have confronted visiting Arab League monitors in Syria's restive city of Homs, demanding international protection.

The observers are verifying compliance with an Arab League plan to end the government's violent crackdown.
Tens of thousands protested in Homs as the monitors arrived. The Arab League said the first day was "very good".
Tanks reportedly withdrew before the monitors arrived but activists say some were simply deployed out of sight.
The UN says more than 5,000 people have been killed in protests against President Bashar al-Assad's rule since March.
'Where is the world?' The BBC's Jim Muir in neighbouring Lebanon says it was a baptism of fire for the monitors who, after visiting the governor of Homs, travelled to the flashpoint district of Baba Amr.
There, our correspondent says, the monitors were besieged by angry residents eager to show the damage to the city and the pools of blood, as gunfire rang out in the background.

Syrian armed forces have made a show of withdrawing from protest flashpoints in the past, only to return when protests resume.
When a UN fact mission came a couple of months ago, they also had trouble in Homs because they attracted a big crowd. As soon as they disappeared, there was shooting and people killed as the security forces dispersed the crowd.
This illustrates just how difficult this mission will be.
This is a big country and it is going to be very hard for the monitors to be sure they have got tabs on things happening everywhere at all times. It will be virtually impossible with a handful of observers.

Video footage showed residents arguing with the monitors, trying to get them to go further inside Baba Amr to see the victims.

The residents in the video shout: "We want international protection" and "Where is the world?"
One of the monitors says that he is not authorised to speak.
There were reports of continued violence in Homs while the monitors were there. The Local Coordination Committees in Syria said 13 people were killed.
The head of the monitors was upbeat about the visit.
Sudan's Gen Mustafa Dabi told Reuters news agency: "Today was very good and all sides were responsive."
He added: "I am returning to Damascus for meetings and I will return tomorrow to Homs. The team is staying in Homs."
However, our correspondent says the results were mixed at best, and the visit brought home how complex the situation is.
Abdul Omar, a spokesman for the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told the BBC he had hoped for better results from the mission and that 10 observers for Homs was never going to be enough.
He said tens of thousands of people had come out onto the streets to demonstrate in one district of Homs but that the monitors did not go there.