UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations on Saturday authorized the deployment of a 300-strong ceasefire monitoring mission, but the United States warned it may not allow a renewal of the mission saying its "patience was exhausted."
In the restive province of Homs meanwhile, the first dispatch of UN observers arrived to monitor a shaky ceasefire, as two civilians were said to be among at least 11 people killed in Syria on Saturday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
Under UN resolution 2043, the unarmed military observers will be sent for an initial period of 90 days if UN leader Ban Ki-moon decides it is safe for them to go.
Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin, whose country played a leading role in drawing up the resolution, told the council the measure was of "fundamental importance to push forward the process of the peaceful settlement in Syria."
The United States however warned it may not allow the renewal of mission after the first three months, while urging greater international pressure on the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations, told AFP that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon must make a "careful judgment" about conditions in Syria before sending 300 unarmed monitors there.
"Our patience is exhausted. No one should assume that the United States will agree to renew this mission after 90 days," Rice told the Security Council after it authorized the full mission.
Several western envoys stressed the dangers of sending unarmed monitors to Syria, where UN officials say well over 9,000 people have been killed in the uprising of the past 13 months.
"It is an unprecedented step to deploy unarmed UN personnel into such a dangerous environment. It is fraught with risk," said Britain's UN ambassador Mark Lyall Grant.
The small advance team of monitors that is already in Syria, and previously prevented from visiting Homs for "security reasons," were able Saturday to tour different districts of the city of the same name, including battered Baba Amr.
Regime forces shelled Baba Amr for a month, leaving hundreds dead according to monitors, before retaking it from rebels on March 1. Two Western journalists were among those killed.
The visit came as the opposition Syrian National Council claimed that Homs neighborhoods were being pounded, although an activist in the city said the situation was calm.
Russia after the UN vote called on all sides in the Syrian conflict to stop fighting and cooperate with the monitoring team.
But in the town of Qusayr, near the Lebanese border in Homs province, a sniper shot dead a woman on Saturday, said the British-based Observatory.
Ahead of the UN vote, state-media reported authorities released 30 people detained for their alleged role in Syria's anti-regime uprising, but who have "no blood on their hands."
The move takes to nearly 4,000 the number of people the authorities have released since November, SANA reported.
Sporadic clashes between government troops and army deserters have rocked Damascus in recent weeks, ahead of a ceasefire that went into effect on April 12.
Elsewhere, an "armed terrorist group" on Saturday blew up a section of an oil pipeline in the Deir Ezzor region of northeast Syria, SANA said.
On Friday, violence persisted on the ground, with at least 46 people killed as thousands of Syrians protested against Assad's regime, according to monitors and activists.
Monitors say more than 200 people have been killed in Syria since the shaky ceasefire to which the government and rebels committed themselves went into effect.
France's UN ambassador Gerard Araud backed the United States by saying there was "no automatic renewal," and that the mission should only be renewed "if we think it is useful."
Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin called Rice's remarks "unhelpful."
"Making negative predictions sometimes looks like a prophecy which some people want to be borne out," he told reporters.
The opposition Syrian National Council hailed the UN Security Council vote on Saturday, saying it responds to the demands of the people of Syria.
"Undoubtedly, the sending of new monitors is a demand of the Syrian people and of the revolutionaries who protest every day," SNC spokesman George Sabra told AFP, welcoming the unanimous council decision at the United Nations.
"But I do not think that 300 monitors will be enough for a country like Syria where the revolution is affecting every town and village," he added, calling for the mission to be enlarged to make it "more effective."
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