U.N. Pulls Non-Essential Staff from Syria

The United Nations on Wednesday said it had withdrawn about 25 international staff and dozens of families of expatriate workers from Syria because of mounting security fears.

"Due to security concerns, we have taken the decision to relocate about 25 non-essential international staff, plus dependents, from Syria," Farhan Haq, the deputy U.N. spokesman, said in New York.

There are more than 200 international U.N. staff in Syria with more than half working for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and UNDOF, the U.N. mission policing the ceasefire on the Golan Heights.

Several dozen dependents of international staff are understood to have left Syria under the move as President Bashar al-Assad steps up his deadly campaign against opposition protests.

"We have pulled more than 20 personnel out of Syria, all of whom are non-essential United Nations staff," said the office of U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams, who was scheduled to arrive at the U.N. headquarters in New York on Wednesday.

The U.N. Security Council will be briefed on Syria on Thursday. U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay and U.N. emergency relief coordinator Valerie Amos are to give details of events in the strife-torn country to the 15-nation body.

Rights groups say Assad's crackdown on protestors has left about 2,000 civilian dead since mid-March.