LONDON, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Arab League monitors should be prepared to refer the situation in Syria to the U.N. Security Council, an opposition leader said.
Members of the Arab League arrived on the restive city of Homs this week to verify terms of a peace plan for Syria. A spokesman for the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in London told the BBC more than 20,000 residents of Homs turned out to demonstrate during the arrival of the monitoring team.
The United Nations estimates at least 5,000 people have been killed in Syria since an uprising against President Bashar Assad began in March.
Burhan Ghalioun, a leading figure in the opposition Syrian National Council, told London's pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat that twin suicide bombings in Damascus last week was the work of the Syrian intelligence agency. The country, he said, was "soaked in blood" and Damascus is working to confuse the Arab monitors.
Correspondents with the BBC said it would be clear by the end of the week if Syrian authorities are being selective with what the Arab team sees in the country. Ghalioun said Damascus only accepted the monitors to delay or prevent action at the Security Council.
The league, he said, should prepare to refer Syria to the Security Council. The Arab League, he added, shouldn't "fall in the snares of terrorism" that Damascus has set.
