

The head of United Nations peacekeeping operations told the Security Council on Tuesday that violence in Syria has escalated to a point where it was too dangerous for the world body's 300 unarmed monitors to resume their mission to observe and report on cease-fire violations.

"The ongoing violence continues to prevent UNSMIS [the monitoring mission] from carrying out its mandated tasks to monitor and report on the cessation of violence," peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous told a closed meeting of the Security Council, according to a U.N. official.

The mission's mandate expires in less than a month, and Ladsous and an Arab League envoy who also addressed the diplomatic gathering reportedly indicated that unless fighting between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and rebel factions ceases, the United Nations won't recommend extending the monitors' presence.

Norwegian Gen. Robert Mood, commander of the monitoring mission, pulled the observers back to their quarters June 16, declaring the work too dangerous as both sides in the 16-month-old conflict ignore a peace plan drafted by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan.

Mood reported to the Security Council that the monitors had been directly fired on at least 10 times before their patrols were suspended, and that nine U.N. vehicles had sustained damage from small-arms fire or roadside bombs. None of the monitors have been injured in the attacks, he said.

Russia's U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, told reporters after the Security Council session that Ladsous and Arab League special envoy Nasser Kidwa gave accounts of the security situation that were "very frank, very objective, and of course their description of the situation in Syria was extremely grim."