Barely 10 months into the uprising, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, is likely to go the way of former Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi if reports coming out of the country are anything to go by. The uprising which, broke out sporadically in the country on January 26, 2011 and later snowballed into mass protest in Daraa on March 15 is threatening to consume al-Assad’s government despite the Arab League’s intervention. 
The league is now at a crossroads following allegations of bias by members of the opposition in Syria. About 100 Arab League observers have been in Syria since last December to monitor compliance to a peace plan brokered by the group. Opposition activists said military vehicles have been replaced by the government since the arrival of the monitors to make it look as though the army has left the city centres as contained in the league’s peace plan. The head of the UK-based Syrian observatory for human rights, Rami Abdel Rahman told the Associated Press that the observers are going to areas known to be loyal to the regime.  He said since the mission started the regime is limiting their movements and when they go out they are under the protection and supervision of Syrian security forces. 
The United Nations, UN, said more than 5,000 civilians have been killed in a crackdown on anti-government protests since March 2010. An activist network said at least 12 people were killed across Syria penultimate week. Casualty figures and other details are hard to verify as most foreign media are barred from reporting freely in Syria since the uprising started.
Human Rights Watch also accused the Syrian authorities of hiding hundreds of prison detainees in various military installations in the country which the observers were not permitted to visit. The Syrian government recently suspended all nongovernmental organisations, NGOs, activities in the country. But the Syrian government has denied ever interfering in the operation of the mission. Foreign ministry spokesman, Jihad al-Makdisi however, said the government was ensuring “protection and escort” for the monitors. 
The head of the Arab League, Nabil al-Arabi, confirmed that the military had withdrawn heavy weapons from cities in accordance with the peace plan but said snipers were still in action in Syrian cities.
There has been criticism of the head of the monitoring team, Sudanese Gen Mustafa al-Dabi, who is regarded by some as biased towards the Syrian government. 
The Syrian uprising, which was inspired by the successful revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, involves the use of tactics such as marches, hunger strikes, rioting and even vandalism all in a sustained campaign of civil resistance aimed at ending nearly five decades of the Ba’athist rule. The uprising has been describes as unprecedented by several political commentators. The protesters are demanding the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad and the overthrow of the government. The situation in Syria is part of the Arab revolt referred to as the Arab Spring, a wave of social upheaval throughout the Arab world demanding for greater political freedom and an end to autocracy. 
As protests continued, the Syrian government began deploying tanks and snipers as a means to quell the uprising. Water and electricity have been shut off in particularly restive areas, and security forces have resorted to confiscating flour and food. 
The Syrian Army has besieged the cities of Daraa, Duma, Baniyas Hama, Homs, Aleppo, Talkalah, Rastan, Jisr ash-Shughur, Deir ez-Zor and Latakia, among other towns. According to witness accounts, soldiers who have refused to open fire on civilians were summarily executed by the Syrian Army. 
The Syrian government has denied the reports of defections and blamed “armed gangs” for causing trouble. Since the summer of 2011, opposition militants and primarily defectors formed fighting units, which began an insurgency against the Syrian regular army. 
President Bashar’s father and former Syrian leader Hafez al-Assad came to power via a 1970 military coup d’état and declared himself president, a position he held until his death in 2000. He was succeeded by his son Bashar al-Assad, who was appointed after a constitutional amendment which lowered the age requirement for president from 40 to his age of 34. 

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