Arab League head Nabil Elaraby said on Friday he fears a possible civil war in Syria that
could have consequences for neighbouring countries, as the credibility of the League's
monitoring mission was hit by members starting to walk out. An Algerian former monitor
said several monitors had left Syria or might do so soon because the mission had failed
to halt President Bashar al-Assad's violent crackdown on a popular revolt against
his rule. Syrian opposition groups say the monitors, due to present their findings
to the Arab League's foreign ministers on Jan. 19-20, have only bought Assad more
time to crush protests that erupted in March, inspired by Arab uprisings elsewhere.