BREAKING NEWS

Syria activists deride slow deployment of UN monitors

BEIRUT - Syrian opposition activists accused the United Nations on Wednesday of "playing with Syrian lives" by dragging out the deployment of ceasefire monitors in the country.
Responding to an announcement that it will take another month to deploy 100 unarmed military observers to oversee a shaky April 12 truce agreement, most activists reacted with a mixture of anger and apathy.
"It takes them a month to arrive? Are they coming on horses?" said a resident from the city of Homs, which has endured sustained shelling by the army. He asked to be referred to only by the nickname 'Sami' for fear of arrest.
There are currently 15 monitors in Syria, visiting areas torn by a 13-month uprising against President Bashar Assad, whose government has responded to protests with gunfire and shelled central districts of opposition strongholds, saying it is fighting an "armed terrorist" revolt.