UN observers leave Syria

Members of the United Nation’s observer delegation to Syria have started to leave the troubled country, as their mission officially comes to an end, Sky News reported.The observers had been intended to watch over a ceasefire, but no truce ever took hold.Both the Syrian government and rebels – including the Free Syrian Army – accused the other of breaching ceasefire terms.Their deployment earlier this year had been one of the only concrete achievements in the peace attempts of former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan.Annan, who sought to broker a peace deal on behalf of the UN and Arab League, steps down from the role on August 31.The head of the UN observer mission also acknowledged “some frustrations” at the failure to reduce violence and end the Syrian government’s use of heavy weapons against its people – conditions set for the mission’s possible extension.The observers’ departure comes after the UN Security Council agreed to end the mission and back a small new liaison office that will support any future peace efforts.Only around 100 observers remained in Syria up until Sunday – a third of the number at the peak of the mission earlier this year.Meanwhile Jordan’s information minister has said four Syrian rockets have fallen on a northern Jordanian border town, wounding a young girl.Sameeh Maaytah said the Jordanian girl, 4, was treated for shrapnel wounds and then released from hospital.Then minister said the rockets landed on Sunday on the outskirts of the Jordanian city of Turra, in a village near Mafraq on the Syrian border.Another government official said the rockets were apparently fired at Syrian villages near the restive southern border city of Daraa but missed their target.The incident comes as Syrian TV showed President Bashar al Assad in a rare, publicised visit to a mosque in the capital Damascus to mark the post-Ramadan Eid festival.    ;Read more... (311 words)

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