Arab observers aim to see Syria's deadliest city

Beirut: Newly-arrived Arab League peace monitors will try to see for themselves the situation in Syria's city of Homs, which opponents of President Bashar al-Assad say has been pulverised by government troops and tanks in recent days.

At least 31 people were killed in the city on Monday as tanks fired into districts where opposition has been strongest to President Bashar al-Assad's rule, activists said.

Assad's opponents fear that the monitors - who arrived in the country on Monday after weeks of negotiations with Arab states - will be used as a cloak of respectability for a government that will hide the extent of violence.

Assad, heir to a 41-year-old dynasty, says he is facing an attack by Islamist terrorists directed from abroad.

The launch of the monitoring mission marks the first international intervention on the ground in Syria since the revolt broke out nine months ago, when the government cracked down on protests inspired by uprisings across the Arab world.

The first 50 of an eventual 150 monitors arrived on Monday. They will be split into five teams of 10, one of which is due to visit Homs on Tuesday.

The teams will use government transport, according to their head, a Sudanese general. Delegates insist the mission will nevertheless maintain the "element of surprise" and be able to go wherever it chooses with no notice.

The monitors are meant to determine whether the government is abiding by a peace plan that requires it to withdraw troops from cities, free prisoners and open dialogue with its opponents. Assad has so far shown no sign implementing the deal.

Amateur video posted by activists on the Internet showed tanks in action in the streets next to apartment blocks in the Baba Amr district of Homs on Monday. One fired its main gun and another appeared to launch mortar rounds.

Mangled bodies lay in pools of blood on a narrow street, the video showed. Power lines had collapsed and cars were burnt and blasted, as if shelled by tank or mortar rounds.

"What's happening is a slaughter," said Fadi, a resident living nearby.

Destruction inflicted by heavy weapons was evident.