Head of Arab League observer mission leaves for Syria

Sudanese General Mohammed Ahmed Mostafa al-Dabi, head of the Arab League's (AL) observer mission to Syria, left for the Syrian capital of Damascus on Saturday evening. An Arab diplomat who requested anonymity told Xinhua that Dabi headed for Syria with a few of his assistants and that the rest of his 50-member team would go to Syria on Monday as planned. Twin suicide bombings rocked two security centers in central Damascus on Friday, leaving 44 dead and 166 others injured. Syria authorities blamed the twin bombings on al-Qaida. At a press conference on Saturday afternoon, Dabi said that Friday's bombings would not hamper the mission's work in any way. He also noted that the protocol signed between the AL and Syria granted the observers visa-free entry to the country and that the AL is playing its observing role in coordination with the Syrian authorities. Syria signed the AL observer protocol on Monday in Cairo after the AL threatened to submit the issue to the United Nations Security Council. On Thursday, an advance team of the observing mission, headed by Samir Saif al-Yazal, assistant to AL chief Nabil al-Arabi, arrived in Syria. The Syrian government said Thursday that a total of 2,000 army and security personnel were killed during the nine-month-old unrest. However, the United Nations said more than 5,000 Syrians have been killed.