Tentative truce holds in Syria

ACEASEFIRE, brokered by the US and Russia, was largely holding yesterday in Syria as the death toll from the country’s five-year conflict exceeded 300000, a monitoring group reported.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the truce, which went into effect at 7pm on Monday, continued in most parts of the country despite minor breaches.

Regime forces shelled opposition-controlled areas in the southern part of Aleppo in northern Syria, the Observatory said. No casualties were reported.

At least 18 people were injured in airstrikes by unidentified jets in Aleppo’s town of Bazaa. The town is located near the area of al-Bab, which is controlled by the Islamic State terrorist group.

The ceasefire excludes Islamic State and al-Qaeda-affiliated militants.

Activists and residents reported a feeling of calm returning to Aleppo, Syria’s former commercial hub, which has become a key battleground in the multi-sided conflict.

“The night was quiet for the first time in months.

“We have not heard any plane flying or strikes,” activist AbdelMouneim Juneid, based in a rebel district in Aleppo, said.

“But people inside Aleppo are cautiously moving inside the city because we do not trust the regime,” he told dpa via Facebook.

Alaa, a resident of Aleppo’s al-Zahra neighbourhood, which is controlled by the regime, sounded optimistic about the truce.

“Last night (Monday) was the first we slept without hearing sounds of bombs and shells,” he said by phone.

“This ceasefire hopes.”

On Friday, the US and Russia sealed an ambitious agreement on Syria that also envisages unprecedented raises our military co-ordination against militant groups there.

Russia has set up a “mobile observation point” and operative military groups in Aleppo to monitor the ceasefire, Russian state news agency Tass reported.

The point, on the city’s major Castello Road, and the operative groups in Hama, south of Aleppo, will observe the situation and report to the Russia’s Khmeimim airbase in Syria, the report said.

Castello Road is considered a main access point to the war-torn city.

A Russian humanitarian convoy used the road yesterday to deliver supplies, the report said.

Observatory head Rami AbdelRahman said Russian soldiers were expected to be deployed near the Castello Road in Aleppo “in the next hours”.

This would be in preparation for delivering relief aid to the eastern rebel-held section of the city.

On July 17, Syrian government forces gained full control of the Castello Road, the last paved road into rebel-held eastern Aleppo.

The move has placed 200000 to 300 000 under siege.

The Observatory said it has documented the deaths of 301781 people since Syria’s crisis started in March 2011.

The toll includes 87 000 civilians, 10 000 of whom are children.

The current truce is the second this year brokered by Washington and Moscow.

The first one, in February, did not hold for long.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said it remained to be seen whether the latest ceasefire is sustainable.

“It is not yet the right time to make any kind of reliable prognoses,” he said in Berlin.

Syria’s conflict started with peaceful anti-government protests but developed into a full-blown war. – dpa