Senegalese General Babacar Gaye, head of the United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) stand inside a hotel elevator as he prepares to leave Damascus August 25, 2012. United Nations military observers started leaving Damascus this week after a four-month mission in which they became helpless spectators of Syria's spiralling conflict, instead of monitoring a ceasefire between President Bashar al-Assad's forces and rebels. The mandate of the monitoring mission, known as UNSMIS, expired on Sunday night after diplomats at the United Nations said conditions for continuing operations had not been met. REUTERS/Khaled al-Hariri (SYRIA - Tags: CIVIL UNREST MILITARY POLITICS)