By EDITH M. LEDERER By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press BEIRUT — The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Saturday to dispatch a first team of monitors to Syria to shore up a brittle cease-fire as escalating fighting between regime and
By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press
BEIRUT — The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Saturday to dispatch a first team of monitors to Syria to shore up a brittle cease-fire as escalating fighting between regime and rebel forces threatened the truce at the heart of special envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan.
Syrian troops shelled residential neighborhoods and rebel gunmen fired rocket-propelled grenades in the central city of Homs in the first use of heavy weapons since the cease-fire officially took effect Thursday. Loud booms echoed across the city as smoke rose above badly damaged apartment blocs. In other parts of Syria, both sides described several deadly shootings.
