Syria: Bashar al-Assad given ultimatum to oversee transition to democracy Saudi Arabia, the major Gulf power, announced it was pulling its observers out. "It is not a quality of Arab leaders to kill their people," a statement by its foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said, accusing the Assad regime of using the mission to "hide its crimes." The offer that emerged was a compromise, but a detailed one. It said Mr Assad should open a dialogue with the opposition within two weeks, form a coalition government in two months, and then allow free elections. It was not clear whether the League had sought a response in advance from Mr Assad, but he was also facing an ever bleaker situation at home. Activists said they were in control of Douma, a town on the outskirts of Damascus itself and just 10 miles from the city centre, after the army was forced to withdraw. Clashes began on Saturday evening at the funeral of Mohammed Said Maddah, a protester who had been shot dead, according to Omar al-Khani, of the Syrian Revolutionary Command in Damascus. "When the martyr's body arrived, along with the funeral procession, the criminal Assad gangs waged a surprise attack and shot at them," he said. Gun battles with the rebel Free Syrian Army led to the government troops eventually withdrawing. "The FSA gathered near Hawwa mosque," said an activist who claimed to have been present at the funeral. Douma is the second town near Damascus to have declared itself free of government control, after Zabadani to the west. Rebels hope that they can become hubs of further resistance, as Benghazi did in Libya. Mr al-Araby said the presence of monitors was softening the regime's stance. It may also have been keen to avoid the fighting necessary to reclaim the two towns while the Arab League decided on its next steps.