Syrian rebels suspend participation in peace talks

Bomb kills five outside opposition HQ in north of country

ASTANA/BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Syrian armed opposition said on Wednesday it had suspended its participation in peace talks being held in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, and demanded an end to government bombing of areas under its control.

A source close to the talks told Reuters, however, that the armed opposition delegation had so far not left the building where the talks were being held, while a senior official from Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry told reporters he expected the Syrian armed opposition to return to the talks on Thursday.

“The delegation has suspended its participation after presenting a memorandum for a total commitment to stopping [government] bombardments,” Ahmad Ramadan, a spokesman for the opposition Syrian National Coalition, said.

He gave no further comment.

The opposition’s interim government, allied with the SNC, carries out technical and administrative functions of government from within opposition-held Syria. SNC members also sit on the High Negotiations Committee, the main Syrian opposition body which represents both political and armed groups.

In a phone call on Tuesday, President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin moved to ease the tension from US air strikes in April against Russian ally Syria, expressing a desire for a Syrian cease-fire and safe zones for the civil war’s refugees.

With a cease-fire ever elusive in Syria, the White House said Washington would send a representative to the cease-fire talks in Astana on Wednesday and Thursday. The State Department said acting Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Stuart Jones would attend as an observer.

Meanwhile, a car bomb killed at least five people and wounded several others outside the SNC headquarters in a northern Syrian town on Wednesday.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also put the death toll at five and said it was expected to rise due to the number of people seriously wounded by the blast in Azaz. The town near the Turkish border has long been a major base for rebels, including groups backed by Ankara.

“A booby-trapped car exploded in front of a headquarters for the interim government,” SNC spokesman Ahmad Ramadan told Reuters by phone.

One of those killed was a guard, Ramadan said. He blamed the attack on Islamic State.

“It was a direct targeting of the [interim] government because the center includes departments of various ministries and local councils,” he said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.

Rebel groups clashed in Azaz in November, one of many incidents that has shown the division among some of the armed opposition, which ranges from Western-backed moderate factions to hard-line Islamists, including al-Qaida-linked fighters.

In separate insurgent infighting around Damascus since last week, factions are clashing east of the capital in violence that has killed scores of fighters and a number of civilians.

Syria’s six-year-old civil war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced more than 11 million.