Arab monitors revisited the flashpoint Syrian city of Homs yesterday and headed to other protest hubs as world powers warned Damascus not to hinder their mission to reveal the truth about the crackdown on dissent.

Army defectors killed at least four soldiers

More bloodshed was reported as army defectors killed at least four soldiers in the southern province of Daraa, two civilians were shot dead in Homs’ Baba Amro quarter, another in Hama and one during protests in Aleppo province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

Also reported were arrests and gunshot injuries in Idlib province and more shooting injuries, with three suspected fatalities, in a village near Damascus.

Accusations that the regime was trying to hide the facts from the monitors were punctuated by France, which charged the team was not being allowed to see what was happening in Homs as repression continued there.

Those concerns were highlighted when Baba Amro residents refused to allow observers in because they were accompanied by an army officer, the Observatory said.

The standoff ended when the officer withdrew.

The residents asked the monitors to “come and see the wounded people and the parents of the martyrs, and not members of the (ruling) Baath party,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.

The monitors also visited Homs’ Bab Sebaa quarter, where the Observatory said the regime had organised a parade in support of President Bashar al-Assad.

The observers were due to visit Daraa, cradle of the nine-month anti-regime protests, the northern provinces of Hama and Idlib and around Damascus.

“As of Wednesday evening, and from Thursday at dawn, the observers will deploy in Idlib and Hama and in Daraa,” mission chief General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi said.

The veteran Sudanese military intelligence officer said observers would also fan out 50-80 kilometres (30-50 miles) around Damascus.

The observers arrived in Syria at the weekend and on Tuesday visited Homs, which has been besieged by government forces for several months. Mr Dabi said the visit to Homs had been “good,” and that he was returning there on Wednesday. He said more observers would join the mission, which now numbers 66 people.

French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said Tuesday’s visit had been too brief and insufficiently revealing.

“A few Arab League observers were able to be briefly present in Homs yesterday. Their presence did not prevent the continuing of the bloody crackdown in this city, where large demonstrations were violently repressed, leaving about 10 dead,” he said.

The UN estimates that more than 5,000 people have been killed in the crackdown since protests against Assad’s regime began in mid-March.

The government blames the violence on “armed terrorist” groups.