The UN observer mission in Syria was suspended Saturday due to escalating violence in the embattled country that's putting its members' lives at risk, the general in charge of the operation said.

Maj. Gen. Robert Mood said increasing bloodshed over the past 10 days was creating dangerous conditions for the 300 observers in the country, who are there trying to oversee a failed ceasefire.

The observers were sent to Syria after former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan brokered a peace plan that included a ceasefire that was to take effect April 12.

Syrian security forces and aligned militias, plus the rebels themselves, never stopped fighting, sometimes putting observers in the line of fire.

"UN observers will not be conducting patrols and will stay in their locations until further notice," Mood said in a statement Saturday.

Observers won't leave the country and the suspension will be reviewed daily, he said.

"Operations will resume when we see the situation fit for us to carry out our mandated activities," Mood said.

The suspension marks another failure of Annan's peace plan for a conflict that began in March 2011 and has resulted in the death of at least 14,000 people, mostly civilians.

It also draws Syria closer toward an all-out civil war.

Although Western governments have condemned the violence, nations have demonstrated little interest in getting involved on the ground or in the air like they did during NATO's intervention in the Libyan uprising.

Russia and China have blocked attempts at strong UN resolutions aimed at ending the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Russia, a key Assad ally, has been accused of arming the regime's security forces beyond existing agreements.

"The lack of willingness by the parties to seek a peaceful transition, and the push towards advancing military positions is increasing the losses on both sides," Mood said.

"It is also posing significant risks to our observers."

Last week, an observers' convoy was blocked and attacked as it was attempting to head to the town of Haffa in the coastal Latakia region, where troops had been battling rebels for a week.

The observers only managed to get in once government troops had seized the area back from the rebels.

On May 15, a roadside bomb damaged observers' cars shortly after they met with Syrian rebels in the northern town of Khan Sheikoun.

A week earlier, a roadside bomb struck a Syrian military truck in the south of the country just seconds after Mood drove by in a convoy.

With files from The Associated Press