Head of UN observers team leaves Syria

BEIRUT – The head of a team of United Nations observers tasked to monitor a cease-fire in Syria that failed has left Damascus.

Lt. Gen. Babacar Gaye gave no statement before leaving the Syrian capital to neighboring Lebanon Saturday.

The mission ended last Sunday but Gaye stayed for meetings.

The U.N. Security Council has agreed to back a small new liaison office to support future peace efforts.

The observers' deployment in April was one of the only concrete achievements in Special Envoy Kofi Annan's attempts to halt the country's escalating civil war.

The observers had intended to supervise a truce that never took hold.

Annan abandoned the job earlier this month and was replaced by veteran Algerian diplomat and former U.N. envoy to Afghanistan and Iraq Lakhdar Brahimi.