U.N. observer chief in Syria questions viability of mission, safety of monitors "Violence, over the past 10 days, has been intensifying ... willingly by the both parties, with losses on both sides and significant risks to our observers," he said. The escalating violence is now limiting our ability to observe, verify, report, as well as assist in local dialogue and stability projects. The U.N. monitoring mission is central to the implementation of a U.N.-mandated peace plan that has now patently failed to halt the bloodshed. An April 12 cease-fire brought only a brief respite, and many in the international community are warning that Syria's 15-month-old uprising against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad is at risk of turning into an all-out civil war. The observers" role is only to "monitor a cessation, not to stop, armed violence," Mood stressed. But it is now clear, he said, that the plan is not being implemented, by either the rebels or the government. There appears to be a lack of willingness to seek a peaceful transition. Instead there is a push towards advancing military positions," he said. "This is not a static mission," he added, pointing out that the mission, whose mandate was for three months, would soon come up for review at the U.N. Security Council. Mood did not indicate whether he advocated strengthening the mission, abolishing it or otherwise changing its mandate. A U.N. diplomat said Mood would brief council members on Monday and that the United Nations would present possible options for the mission's reconfiguration by July 10. But the growing violence had already called into question the ability of the unarmed and lightly protected monitors to do their job. Since the mission began April 29, monitors have been shot at on several occasions and their convoys have been targeted by roadside bombs. On Wednesday, Assad supporters surrounded the monitors" vehicles to prevent them from visiting the embattled town of Haffah, outside the port city of Latakia, where a fierce battle had been raging for more than a week. The scenes of men hitting the two vehicles with iron rods and jumping on their roofs, posted on the Internet, seemed to underscore the monitors" vulnerability. When the team members were allowed into the town by Syrian officials the next day, they found it deserted, devastated and infused with "the stench of dead bodies" after the rebels had fled and government forces took control. Syrian opposition groups said that at least 25 people were killed in violence Friday, including eight who died when government troops fired two mortar rounds at a mosque in the town of Bushra Sham, in the southern province of Daraa. The official government news agency SANA reported that "an armed terrorist group" had detonated two bombs outside the mosque. Syrians around the country turned out for the regular Friday protests that have continued throughout the uprising, this week under the slogan, "Russia is the enemy of the Syrian people." Russia, one of Assad's staunchest allies, is widely blamed by members of the Syrian opposition for impeding what they had hoped would be a more robust international response to the bloodshed and for continuing to supply arms to Assad's government. In Moscow, Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, took issue with statements by U.S. officials that the United States and Russia are discussing ways to address a post-Assad transition. "We do not get involved in overthrowing regimes - either through approval of unilateral actions by the U.N. Security Council or by participation in any political plots," Lavrov told reporters.