The U.N. Security Council voted Saturday to form a group of up to 300 unarmed military observers and an unspecified number of civilian specialists to monitor the cease-fire between the Syrian government and armed opposition forces, the Washington Post reports.
The U.N. Supervision Mission in Syria is set to reinforce a small team that began testing the nine-day-old cease-fire this week with visits to multiple Syrian towns, the Washington Post reports.
According to CNN, the cease-fire is part of a six-point peace plan laid out by U.N.-Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan and accepted by the Syrian government.
Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said that the Obama administration supports the decision but there should be "no illusions" that the observers will erase the tension in Syria, according to the Washington Post.
The city of Homs underwent another day of heavy shelling Sunday after a temporary pause in shelling on Saturday, when two U.N. monitors were in the city, CNN reports.
"Today is the first day since two months ... Homs (is) without shelling," one man told the monitors Saturday. "When you come, shelling stops."

Leave a comment