Officials: Arabs Likely to Extend Syria Mission Two senior Arab League senior officials say the organization will likely extend its monitoring mission in Syria, with several nations that had been opposed to the extension changing their position in recent days. The officials said Friday that the direction within the League is to keep the mission in place as the international community is not yet ready for "escalation" to an intervention in Syria. Qatar, a harsh critic of the Syrian crackdown on protesters, has called for the dispatch of Arab troops to the country, where 10 months of unrest and crackdown have left thousands dead. In this Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012 photo, anti-Syrian regime protesters chant slogans and flash the victory sign as they march during a demonstration at the mountain resort town of Zabadani, Syria, near the Lebanese border. As diplomats debated, opposition activists said Syrian troops shelled the mountain resort town of Zabadani, which has come under the control of army defectors. Syria's powerful ally Russia said Wednesday it would block any attempt by the West to secure U.N. support for the use of force against the regime in Damascus, which is under intense international pressure to end its deadly crackdown on dissent. Arab League foreign ministers were set to meet Sunday in Cairo to discuss the future of a one-month observer mission, which expired on Thursday. BEIRUT (AP) - The Syrian opposition is calling for demonstrations in support of thousands of detainees they say are still in prison, despite a general amnesty declared this week. President Bashar Assad issued the amnesty on Sunday for "crimes" committed during the 10-month uprising against his rule, but his regime did not say how many prisoners were covered by it. Assad's government blames the violence in Syria on terrorists and armed gangs that it claims are part of a foreign conspiracy to destabilize the country. The opposition says there are thousands of Syrian detainees still in prisons and other detention centers. Friday's protests were called in the name of "the detainees of the revolution." The opposition called for their immediate release.