ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.
There was more killing in Syria today. According to activists, at least 40 protesters were shot dead. That, despite the presence of an Arab League monitoring mission charged with documenting the implementation of a peace plan.
NPR's Deborah Amos reports from Beirut that the anti-government movement has been critical of the Arab League, but also emboldened by the presence of monitors.
DEBORAH AMOS, BYLINE: The Arab League observers became part of the action while on a mission to Homs, a city at the center of the protest movement.
(SOUNDBITE OF SHOUTING, GUNFIRE)
AMOS: Heavy gunfire forced them to take cover in an alleyway with what appears to be local residents. This video, posted on Wednesday, shows the observers in distinctive orange vests, scrambling to safety. Another video from the same day shows citizens from Homs approaching the monitors, carrying a child who'd been shot dead.
(SOUNDBITE OF SHOUTING, TALKING)
AMOS: The lifeless body was placed on the hood of a car for the monitors to inspect.
Syria's uprising has been called the YouTube Revolution because of the distinctive videos documenting state violence against peaceful protests. Now, the same techniques are being used to try to break through official control of the Arab League mission, says activist Rami Jarrah.
RAMI JARRAH: So what the citizen journalists have done, they've taken things into their own hands. The people on the ground now are playing a big role in making sure that the observers do their work properly,
AMOS: But it's not without risks. At least three people in Homs were arrested after talking to the Arab League team, according to many sources. Today, the observers also visited the city of Hama, where more than 90 people died in an August crackdown. But activists say they weren't able to talk to the monitors.
Abu Bakr, part of an underground organizing group, says the fear of arrest was too great.
ABU BAKR: We have a problem that we can't communicate with the inspectors. The inspectors are all the time watched by the regime thugs and Shabiha.
AMOS: The monitors are in Syria to assess the government's pledge to withdraw troops and tanks from city streets. That's why Abu Bakr says it's important to interview the local people.
BAKR: We wanted to show the inspectors the tanks that are being hidden in the kids hospital, and in the civil defense building in Hama.
AMOS: How much can these observers see while escorted by security police? It's hard to tell in the first days of this unprecedented mission. But the criticism is growing - as well as alarm over the profile of a Sudanese general heading the Arab League team. He's the former intelligence chief of a government accused of genocide in Darfur. Arab newspaper editorials have highlighted his career, and asked if he's the right man for the job.
But it's the young cameramen among the protesters who have taken on the toughest job - risking their lives to document the uprising and now, the Arab League mission. They're often the first to be targeted by the security police, says activist Rami Jarrah. Twenty-four-year-old Basil al-Sayid died on the day the observers arrived in Homs.
JARRAH: He was just about to film, and they were opening fire at the crowd that was protesting. And it was the moment that he pressed record, it was - that was the moment he was shot. He was shot to the head but has died yesterday, yesterday evening.
AMOS: There are many others willing to take his place. Deborah Amos, NPR News, Beirut.
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