Syrian police killed two civilians Tuesday while opening fire on a crowd welcoming UN observers in the province of Dair az Zour. "As soon as the convoy of the UN arrived in Al Boussaira, hundreds of people cheering in the street came out to greet them. A couple of minutes later they were shot," said Abu Laila, an official of the Free Syrian Army (FSA). "Observers immediately left Al Boussaira. We asked them to come back but they refused," he said, adding that fighting had ensued between rebels and government forces.
The soldiers surrounding the city fired anti-aircraft missiles, said a source close to the opposition.
Al Boussaira is one of many villages in the hands of insurgents in the eastern oil province of the country, which borders Iraq.
Meanwhile, a bomb exploded in a restaurant in Damascus. The blast in the capital neighborhood of Qaboun killed five people Monday night, according to Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR) and the state television, which blamed the attack on "terrorists."
Elsewhere, demonstrations against the regime of Bashar al-Assad held in Aleppo, the second largest city, while a person was killed by gunfire in the city of Deraa (south), said the SOHR.
The violence continues unabated despite the presence of some 270 UN observers who have so far have been unable to enforce the truce called by the peace plan of International envoy Kofi Annan.
