Saudi joins calls for action in Syria as it quits Arab mission

Saudi Arabia joined Qatar in calling for international action in Syria on Sunday night and announced it was pulling its members out of an Arab League monitoring mission.

The region's major oil power put new pressure on President Bashar al-Assad, accusing his regime of using the month-long mission to "hide its crimes". 

"It is not a quality of Arab leaders to kill their people," said Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister.

The statement overshadowed a League proposal to renew the mission for another month. Qatar called for a review of the mission possibly leading to the dispatch of Arab troops to act as peacekeepers.

Rebels said they were in control of Douma, a town on the edge of Damascus and just 10 miles from the city centre. 

Opposition groups reacted angrily to the Arab League proposal, by its secretary-general, Nabil al-Araby, which made no mention of referring the crisis to the United Nations. "The observers don't do anything," said Rami Shaheen, who had been jailed in the city of Dera'a but has since managed to flee to Egypt. "Now our revolutionaries are asking that they refer this to the UN security council."

Araby also attacked the Assad regime, saying it had not fulfilled its promises to implement the League's peace plan. But he also said the mission was encouraging Syrians to express themselves more freely.

In Douma, clashes began on Saturday night at the funeral of Mohammed Said Maddah, a protester who had been shot.

"The criminal Assad gangs waged a surprise attack and shot at them, using machine guns, rockets, and snipers, as they approached the Hawwa mosque," Omar al-Khani, of the Syrian Revolutionary Command in Damascus, said. "We have confirmation of dozens of casualties." The Free Syrian Army (FSA), armed defectors, stepped in, Mr Khani said. Fighting broke out and spread until the army withdrew.

"The FSA managed to kill seven or eight troops and capture one officer," said an activist who claimed to have been present at the funeral. 

Video from the town on Sunday showed armed FSA rebels patrolling openly.

Douma is the second town in the vicinity of Damascus to have declared itself free of government control, after Zabadani.

"He is losing his forces, that is apparent. He is getting weaker day by day. More frequently now the leaders of the troops run away," said an activist in Douma. 

The League argues that the regime is softening its stance due to the monitors' presence. The regime may have been keen to avoid the fighting that would be necessary to reclaim the two towns while the League decided on its next steps.

A majority of Arab states, including Tunisia and Egypt, fear that international action might trigger further violence.

However, Saudi's political clout and Qatar's growing assertiveness mean that those hoping for continued engagement with the Assad regime are holding an ever thinner line.