Truce goes into effect in another Syria ‘safe zone’

BEIRUT — Russia’s Defense Ministry announced a cease-fire for a third safe zone in war-torn Syria on Thursday, paving the way for the delivery of sorely needed humanitarian relief to rebel-held areas north of the city of Homs.

In central Syria, meanwhile, a swap between Lebanon’s Hezbollah group and Syria’s al-Qaida affiliate ended with more than 7,000 fighters and civilians crossing into rebel-held parts of northern Syria in return for the release of five Lebanese militants who arrived in government-held parts of the country.

Military Spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Russia would deploy military police in the area on Friday and set up two checkpoints and three observation points around its borders.

“It’s important that people can live again,” said Mustapha Khaled, an opposition activist.

It is the third of four planned cease-fires reached in recent months under an agreement brokered by Russia, Iran and Turkey in May that aims to “de-escalate” the prolonged Syrian civil war.

Russia and Iran are providing military support to President Bashar Assad, while Turkey sponsors some of the opposition forces arrayed against him.

Pro-government forces have besieged the enclave north of Homs for years but have been unable to capture it from the opposition even as it recovered territory elsewhere.

Shelling and air strikes against the enclave have eased since the May agreement was signed, said Khaled. Residents will now be expecting further relief.

The agreement, according to notes leaked by the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, follows the model of another cease-fire zone for the suburbs of Damascus.

Both truces were negotiated in Cairo between Russia and what the Ministry of Defense described as the “moderate opposition.”

Aid will be expected to flow again to north Homs, and Russia will staff checkpoints around the enclave to facilitate the movement of civilians in and out of the enclave to revitalize the economy.

The agreement also prescribes the release of political prisoners, long a demand of the opposition.

The U.N. has pleaded for relief to flow to besieged areas. It says the parties are using food and other basic goods as a weapon of war.

The north Homs enclave holds 147,000 people, according to the military media arm of Hezbollah, a participant in the conflict.

The government’s air force has cut back its attacks on the four “deescalation zones” designated in the May agreement.

The government has pounded parts of the Damascus suburbs nominally covered under the ceasefire there, on the grounds that it is targeting al-Qaidalinked militants, as permissible in the agreements.

The Observatory says 170 people have been killed in the 12 days since the cease-fire there went into effect, calling the truce a “failure.”

Also Thursday, a 113-bus convoy from Lebanon carrying some 7,700 refugees and al-Qaida-linked militants crossed a transfer point in the western Syrian province of Hama, into rebel-held Idlib province in northwest Syria. Idlib is dominated by a Syrian affiliate of al-Qaida.