Violence in Syria kills 4, despite safe zones

BEIRUT (AP) — Violence left at least four opposition fighters dead and a child wounded in central and southern Syria Saturday despite relative calm prevailing across the war-ravaged country after a deal to set up "de-escalation zones" in mostly oppositionheld areas went into effect, opposition activists and government media outlets said.

The casualties were the first after the implementation of the agreement hammered out by Russia, Turkey and Iran — the latest attempt to bring calm to the country — commenced at midnight Friday.

The establishment of safe zones is the latest international attempt to reduce violence amid a six-year civil war that has left more than 400,000 dead, and is the first to envisage armed foreign monitors on the ground in Syria. The United States is not party to the agreement and the Syrian rivals have not signed on to the deal. The armed opposition, instead, was highly critical of the proposal, saying it lacks legitimacy.

Details of the plan must still be worked out over the next several weeks. There were limited reports of bombing in northern Homs and Hama, and the southern province of Daraa, areas expected to be part of the "de-escalation zones," activists said.

It is not clear how the ceasefire or "de-escalation zones" will be enforced in areas still to be determined in maps to emerge a month from now.

Russian officials said it will be at least another month until the details are worked out and the safe areas established.

In the tangled mess that constitutes Syria's battlefields, there is much that can go wrong with the plan agreed on in talks Thursday in Kazakhstan.

Syria's government has said that although it will abide by the agreement, it would contin- ue fighting "terrorism" wherever it exists, parlance for most armed rebel groups fighting government troops.

The armed opposition delegation to the talks in the Kazakh capital of Astana said in a statement released early Saturday that the truce should include all Syria and not just specific areas. It said some maps of the "de-escalation zones" that were released are not accurate and will not be accepted because the armed opposition did not negotiate them.

Still, opposition activists in southern, central and northern Syria told The Associated Press on Saturday that the situation was more clam Saturday than previous days, with little shelling and airstrikes reported.

The government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media reported there was "relative clam" Saturday morning in the "de-escalation zones" nine hours after the deal went into effect.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has activists on the ground across the country, said the government's helicopter gunships dropped at least 10 barrel bombs on the rebelheld Latamneh area and its surroundings in central Syria where fighting was reported between rebels and troops. It added that government forces shelled rebel-held neighborhoods of the capital Damascus.

"Despite some violations the situation is much calmer than before," said opposition activist Mohammed al-Homsi, speaking via Skype from northern Syria.

Ahmad al-Masalmeh, who is based in the southern province of Daraa that borders Jordan, said there were six breaches in the province when government forces shelled opposition-held areas.