BEIRUT - An Arab League monitor told an angry crowd in Syria that his team's job was only to observe, not to help them remove the president they have been rebelling against for nine months, live video on Al Jazeera showed on Friday.

"Our goal is to observe...it is not to remove the president, our aim is to return Syria to peace and security," he said, speaking over a loudspeaker from a podium at a mosque filled with protesters in the Damascus suburb of Douma.

But the observer, who did not give his name, said he promised to convey the protesters' sufferings.

"From what I have heard there is blood being shed," he said. "That is for sure."