The Arab League observer mission in Syria is slated to end Thursday, with the bloc mulling on whether or not to extend their term in the country.
At least 26 people were killed across Syria on Thursday, with seven in Idlib province, activist group the Local Coordination Committees said. As Al-Jazeera reported, more than 600 people have been killed in Syria since the Arab League observers were deployed there.
Adnan al-Khudeir, the Cairo-based coordinator of reports from the observers, told The Associated Press that observers will stay in Syria until a final decision is made on Sunday, despite the deadline officially terminating Thursday.
“If there is a decision to extend the mission of the observers, we are ready to send more monitors after training them in three days,” he told AP. Monitors are currently working in 17 separate places across Syria.
Since the Arab League mission involving about 165 observers started last month, there has been little evidence that Syria’s crackdown on dissent has abating, drawing widespread criticism of the mission.
The United Nations estimated that more than 5,000 people have been killed in the unrest that began in mid-March.
A former member of the Arab League mission, Anwar Malek, told the BBC that the mission has served the regime but has not prevented the massacre of civilians.
“I witnessed crimes against humanity, and I was really shocked. I have seen houses destroyed, the bodies of murdered women and children, and families have a lack of food. I have seen bodies with marks of torture,” he said.
