The monitors were taken to hospital where they were treated and have continued their duties, said KUNA, citing a statement from Kuwait's military.

The UAE's foreign minister accused the Syrian regime on Tuesday of not facilitating the job of the observers, lamenting the latest attacks on the envoys. "The job of the observers is getting more difficult day after day ... We do not see a commitment from the Syrian side that would allow them" do their job, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahayan told reporters in Abu Dhabi. Video footage on the Internet purporting to show a convoy of cars carrying monitors in Latakia on Monday showed a crowd waving Syrian flags and pictures of President Bashar Assad surrounding the convoy and climbing onto the vehicles.

Rami Abdulrahman, head of the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which distributed the video, said he was not aware of any injuries in the incident.

But another video which activists said was filmed on Monday evening showed a white car with markings similar to those in Abdulrahman's video driving slowly with damaged bodywork and wheels.

Meanwhile, Bashar vowed Tuesday to respond to threats against him with an "iron hand" and refused to step down, insisting he still has his people's support despite the 10-month-old uprising against him.

He repeated claims that a foreign conspiracy and terrorists are behind the unrest — not true reform-seekers. "Our priority now is to regain security which we basked in for decades, and this can only be achieved by hitting the terrorists with an iron hand," Bashar said in a speech at Damascus University.

Bashar said he was implementing reforms and that a referendum on a new constitution should be held in March. As it stands now, the constitution enshrines his Baath party as the leader of the state. But he emphasized the measures are not coming because of pressure from the crisis.

"If reform is forced, it will fail," he said. "Reform for us is the natural path." "Elections must be linked to a new constitution," he said. "They could be at the start of May." Syria's top Muslim cleric called on rebels to lay down their arms while a Christian counterpart hit out at Western sanctions, in sermons aired by state television on Tuesday.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Ahmed Badreddin Hassoun and Greek Orthodox Archbishop Luka Al-Khuri were both speaking at an inter-faith memorial service in the capital's Holy Cross Church for 26 people killed in a suicide bombing in Damascus on Friday. "I call on all those who have taken up arms... to lay them down," the mufti said.

"If you want to share power, put forward your program without taking up arms, and if we're persuaded by it, we'll implement it," added Hassoun, whose son Sariah was killed in October in a wave of assassinations targeting figures seen as close to the regime. Hassoun urged dissidents to make the transition from "argument to dialogue."

The archbishop, who officiated at the church service, spoke out against the European Union and United States sanctions imposed on Syria to punish the regime for its deadly 10-month crackdown on dissent.