(CNN) -- U.N. observers continued their mission Monday in Syria to chronicle what is happening in the beleaguered nation, though even the team's leader admitted its efforts are futile unless all factions commit to full candor and peace.

"Ten unarmed observers, 30 unarmed observers, 300 unarmed observers, even 1,000 unarmed observers cannot solve all the problems," Maj. Gen. Robert Mood told a swarm of reporters in Damascus on Sunday, shortly after arriving in the country. "So I call on everyone to help us and cooperate with us in this very challenging task ahead of us."

After months of violence, Arab League-U.N. envoy Kofi Annan weeks ago helped broker what he hoped was a cease-fire.

Yet violence has continued in the Middle Eastern nation.

At least 25 people were reported dead across Syria on Sunday, according to the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, a network of opposition activists. The deaths include nine in Hama and eight in Homs.

The bodies of a father and son were found in a house in the western city of Homs on Sunday, days after a massacre in the city, the group said. In addition, security forces fatally shot four people in Deir Ezzor, Hama and the Damascus suburbs.

Demonstrations broke out in several cities, with participants chanting for freedom and demanding the regime's ouster. In Daraa, intense gunfire could be heard at checkpoints. The city lacked electricity.

Syrian state television, meanwhile, broadcast images early Monday showing a damaged police car in Damascus and a pillar with a missing chunk of concrete outside the Central Bank of Syria building, also in the capital.

Both were attacked by "armed terrorist group" members using rocket-propelled grenades, state TV reported, adding that there were no casualties in the bank incident and four police were wounded in the other.

The LCC responded with a statement saying that Syria's "security apparatus has resorted to fabricating staged explosions that have taken the lives of dozens of Syrians." The opposition network pointed specifically to "suspicious explosions in or near several government buildings, including the official state media and television office; a security center in Rukneddine; and the Central Bank building."

The group said it "holds the regime and its security apparatus fully responsible for the bombings and the resultant effects."

"These tricks no longer fool anyone, especially given the fact that the regime has resorted to these escalations every time there is political movement at the Arab, regional or international level to find a political solution to the crisis in which the regime kills its people who are demanding freedom," added the LCC.

The most high-profile aspect of the latest international efforts is the U.N. observer team, many of which arrived ahead of Mood earlier this month.

Mood emphasized Sunday that the success of joint U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's initiative depends not on him or his fellow observers, but more on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces and opposition fighters.

"To achieve the success of Kofi Annan's six-point plan ... I call on all to stop the violence and to help us on a continued cessation of violence in all its forms," Mood said, echoing a plea made by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and many others in recent months.

The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported Sunday that a delegation of U.N. observers was visiting the al-Khaldiyeh neighborhood of Homs.

Roughly 30 monitors are expected to be on the ground by Monday, and a total of 300 are slated to arrive in the coming month. The United States is not providing monitors but is helping with funding and logistics.

"This is a matter of utmost urgency for the United Nations and all efforts are in place to make sure that we get the people on the ground as quickly as possible ... apart from Damascus, we have permanently based observers in Homs, Hama, Daraa and Idlib, so this process will continue," said Neeraj Singh, the observer team's spokesman, on Sunday.

Opposition activists in Homs, a bastion of anti-government sentiment, have said attacks by al-Assad's forces only stop when U.N. monitors visit.

"We were able to get the civilians' corpses out of the streets because of the help and presence of the U.N. monitors," one man says in a video purportedly shot Saturday on the streets of Homs. "The corpses were dumped on the ground for over 40 days, and we couldn't get to them because of Assad's thugs and snipers. The bodies are decomposed, so we had to wear muzzles because of the foul smell so we can get to them and bury them. Just look the destruction that happened here in Homs because of Assad."