League concedes Syria still killing people

The head of the Arab League conceded league observers failed to prevent President Bashar Assad's security forces from killing unarmed protesters. "Yes, there is still shooting and yes, there are still snipers," Secretary-General Nabil al-Arabi told reporters at the league's headquarters in Cairo. "The objective is for us to wake up in the morning to hear that no one is killed," Arabi said. "The mission's philosophy is to protect civilians, so if anyone is killed then our mission is incomplete. "There must be a complete cease-fire," he said. Arabi's comments differed sharply from observations attributed to the mission's leader, Lt. Gen. Mohammed al-Dabi, a former head of military intelligence in Sudan. Dabi, a close confidante of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir -- wanted on war-crimes charges by the International Criminal Court -- is accused of presiding over the creation of the Janjaweed government-backed militia that carried out a brutal scorched-earth campaign in the Darfur conflict beginning in 2003. In Syria, Dabi was reported to have said he saw "nothing frightening" during a gunfire-interrupted observer visit a week ago in Homs, where more than 1,000 people were reported killed in some of the worst violence in the nine-month conflict. Dabi, who was separately quoted as praising the Assad regime for being "very cooperative," later contradicted one of his own observers, who said he had seen snipers shooting at protesters with his own eyes. Dabi said the observer was speaking hypothetically, the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported. Dabi said the reports of his comments were "unfounded and not true," a mission statement said Friday. The Local Coordination Committees activist network said 390 people had been killed in Syria since the Arab League observers arrived Thursday -- including at least 15 people Monday. Arabi's also defended Dabi Monday. "There is no doubt that he is a respectable military man with a clean reputation," Arabi said. "His record, which I saw, does not include anything that would condemn him." Arabi said successes of the observer mission so far include reports the Syrian army pulled out of major city centers, at least partially complying with a deal the league negotiated with the Assad regime, he said. The observers' arrival helped residents in some hard-hit areas get food, and Syria announced it released nearly 3,500 political prisoners, he said. The observers are charged with monitoring compliance with a November deal under which Assad agreed to remove security forces from city streets, release political prisoners, allow free access to foreign journalists and human-rights workers and begin talks with political opposition groups.