Air strikes disrupt fragile ceasefire in Syria
BEIRUT—Warplanes attacked six Syrian towns in the western part of Aleppo province on Sunday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a day after a cessation of hostilities agreement took effect.
Syrian insurgents confirmed the air strikes and said they were carried out by Russian war planes, but the Syrian Observatory said that the identity of the jets was not clear.
On Saturday, the first day of a cessation of hostilities that the United Nations described as the best hope for peace in five years of civil war, guns mostly fell silent in Syria as Russian air raids stopped.
Under the US-Russian accord accepted by President Bashar Assad’s government and many of his foes, fighting should cease so aid could reach civilians and talks would open to end a war that had killed more than 250,000 people and made 11 million homeless.
Russia, which intended to continue strikes in areas held by Islamist fighters not covered by the truce, said it would suspend all flights over Syria.
The truce seemed largely to be holding, though rebels reported what they described as occasional government violations.
Jaish al-Nasr, a group affiliated to the Free Syrian Army (FSA), said government forces had fired mortars, rockets and machine guns in Hama province and that warplanes had been constantly present in the sky.
Another FSA group, Alwiyat Seif al-Sham, said two of its fighters had been killed and four more wounded when government tanks shelled them in rural areas west of Damascus.
A Syrian military source denied the army was violating the truce agreement. State media described rocket attacks near Damascus and several deadly attacks by Islamic State (IS). But overall the level of violence was far reduced.
“Let’s pray that this works be- cause frankly this is the best opportunity we can imagine the Syrian people has had for the last five years in order to see something better and hopefully something related to peace,” UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said at a midnight news conference in Geneva.
“I think the feeling that we have today is that the situation is very different, but of course every day has to be monitored.”
The agreement is the first of its kind to be attempted in four years and, if it holds, would be the most successful truce of the war so far.
De Mistura said he intended to restart peace talks on March 7, provided the halt in fighting would hold.
But there are weak spots in a fragile deal that does not cover jihadist groups such as IS and the Nusra Front, al-Qaida’s branch in Syria. IS claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb in Hama province. Nusra has called for redoubled attacks.