Syrian ceasefire breached 9 times in 24 hours

[Anthea]

Reuters

Al Qaeda in Syria calls for more fighting as deadline nears

Syria's branch of al Qaeda, one of its most powerful Islamist rebel groups, called for an escalation in fighting against the government and its allies, adding to the dangers facing an agreement to halt fighting set to start on Saturday.

The government and rebel groups have agreed to take part in a U.S.-Russian "cessation of hostilities" accord that is due to begin at midnight (2200 GMT on Friday). Warring parties had been required to accept by noon.

Under the measure, which has not been signed by the Syrian warring parties themselves and is less binding than a formal ceasefire, the government and its enemies are expected to stop shooting so aid can reach civilians and peace talks begin.

The truce does not apply to jihadist groups such as Islamic State and the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, and the Damascus government and its Russian allies say they will not halt combat against those militants. Other rebels seen as moderates by the West say they fear this will be used to justify attacks on them.

The Nusra Front on Friday urged insurgent groups to intensify their attacks against President Bashar al-Assad and his allies.

Nusra's leader, Abu Mohamad al-Golani, said in an audio message on Orient News TV that insurgents should "strengthen your resolve and intensify your strikes, and do not let their planes and great numbers (of troops) scare you".

Unlike Islamic State, which controls defined areas of territory in central and eastern Syria, the Nusra Front is widely dispersed in opposition-held areas in the west, and any escalation would add to the risks of the truce collapsing.

Nusra is bigger than nearly all the factions taking part in the cessation, with fighters across western Syria.

As the deadline for the cessation of hostilities approached, heavy air strikes were reported to have hit rebel-held areas near Damascus while fighting raged across much of western Syria.

The Syrian government has agreed to the cessation plan. The main opposition alliance, which has deep reservations, said it would accept it for two weeks but feared the government and its allies would use it to attack opposition factions under the pretext that they were terrorists.
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President Vladimir Putin said Russia had received information that all parties expected to take part in the cessation of hostilities had said they were ready to do so, Russian news agencies reported.

Putin stressed that combat actions against Islamic State, the Nusra Front and other groups which the Syrian government regards as terrorists would continue.

"I would like to express the hope that our American partners will also bear this in mind ... and that nobody will forget that there are other terrorist organizations apart from Islamic State," he said in Moscow.

BREATHING SPACE

The United Nations hopes the pause in fighting will provide a breathing space to resume peace talks in Geneva, which collapsed this month before they began.

A Russian Foreign Ministry official said the Geneva talks could resume on March 7. In New York, diplomats said the U.N. Security Council would vote on Friday on a resolution endorsing the planned pause in fighting.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring organization, on Friday reported at least 26 air raids and artillery shelling targeting the town of Douma in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta near Damascus.

Rescue workers said five people were killed in Douma. Syrian military officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Eastern Ghouta is regularly targeted by the Syrian army and its allies. It is a stronghold of the Jaish al-Islam rebel group, which is represented in the main opposition alliance, the High Negotiations Committee. The area has been used as a launch pad for rocket and mortar attacks on Damascus.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-midea ... SKCN0VZ0WX

[Anthea]

The Guardian

Syrian ceasefire begins but US expecting violations

Complex ceasefire deal agreed by Russia and US, which excludes large areas of country, began at midnight local time

A fragile, temporary and partial cessation of hostilities has come into force in Syria after 97 fighting groups, as well as the Syrian government and Russian air force, signed up to a ceasefire.

A monitoring group said early on Saturday that fighting appeared to have stopped across most of western Syria, although the country’s state news agency said a car bomb had exploded on the edge of a government-held central town of Salamiyeh, killing two and wounding several others. No one claimed responsibility.

A Syrian rebel group called First Coastal Division in the country’s northwest said it came under attack from government ground forces at 4am local time (0200 GMT), leaving three fighters dead in what it called a breach of the truce.

Three fighters from the rebel First Coastal Division were killed while repelling the attack in the Jabal Turkman area near the Turkish border in Latakia province, Fadi Ahmad, the group’s spokesman, told Reuters.

The United Nations security council on Friday unanimously demanded that all parties to the civil war in Syria complied with the terms of the US-Russian deal which took effect at midnight as Friday turned to Saturday local time.

UN Syria mediator Staffan de Mistura, briefing the security council by satellite from Geneva, warned that there would be breaches of the ceasefire and all sides had to be prepared to deal with them in a sober way, and work to identify the cause of the breaches.

He said that Saturday would be critical, adding he had “no doubt there will be no shortage of attempts to undermine this process”.

“This will remain a complicated, painstaking process,” he told the council. But he added that “nothing is impossible, especially at this moment.” He said that any military response to the cessation of hostilities would be a “last resort” and “proportionate”.

He also confirmed he will seek to convene peace talks lasting three weeks on 7 March in Geneva.

The US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, attacked the Russians for continuing to ramp up military attacks hours before the ceasefire.

She warned: “Let us be real. It is going to be extremely challenging to make this work, especially at the outset.”

But, in a passionate address, she added: “If this collapses we lose the most tangible opportunity to relieve the suffering.” She added that everyone at the top of the UN had become broken records, demanding the violence end. “Even a partial de-escalation would make a real difference in the lives of Syrians,” she added.

Fighting had continued in western Syria right up to when the agreement went into effect, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Shortly after midnight on Friday, there was calm in many parts of the country, it said. “In Damascus and its countryside ... for the first time in years, calm prevails,” Observatory director Rami Abdulrahman said. “In Latakia, calm, and at the Hmeimim air base there is no plane activity,” he said in reference to the Latakia base where Russia’s warplanes operate from.

Large areas of Syria will be excluded from the ceasefire, according to the maps being issued by both US and Russian sources on Thursday and Friday, due to the Russian insistence that the Syrian government and Russian air force be able to continue attacks not only against Islamic State but also the Syrian franchise of al-Qaida, al-Nusra Front.

European diplomats acknowledged that al-Nusra was intermingled with more moderate rebel forces, especially in northern Syria, making it hard to delineate the zones that will be excluded from Russian and Syrian assault.

But the cessation is probably the most concerted diplomatic multinational effort to reduce the bloodshed since the war began five years ago and is designed to open the way for the start of UN-sponsored peace talks, on 7 March in Geneva. The UN is also gearing up for a major humanitarian relief effort.

Members of the International Syria Support Group met on Friday in Geneva to discuss the monitoring of the complex ceasefire arrangement agreed by the US and Moscow at the beginning of the week.

The cessation of hostilities came into force at midnight local time (10pm GMT), and has the support of the Syrian government led by President Bashar al-Assad, the Kurdish forces in northern Syria, Turkey and the opposition high negotiations committee – the umbrella body that brings together the rebel factions.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has invested personal capital in the process, which has not been the case with previous peace drives.

The UN security council also passed the joint Russian-American resolution urging all sides to honour the ceasefire and allow humanitarian convoys free and unfettered access.

A White House spokesman, Josh Earnest, said the US did not expect to be able to judge the success or failure of the effort within the first days or even weeks.

“We do anticipate we’re going to encounter some speed bumps along the way,” Earnest said. “There will be violations.”

A spokesman for Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, also acknowledged there had been an increase in violence in the hours ahead of the ceasefire, but claimed this was normal ahead of any ceasefire deadline. Asked how the ceasefire would be monitored, the spokesman said: “The only thing that is required is for people to take their finger off the trigger. That is what is being asked.”

Russia carried out intense raids on rebel bastions across Syria on Friday just hours before the truce was due to take effect, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The head of al-Nusra Front, Mohammad al-Jolani, urged opponents of Assad to reject a ceasefire.

He said: “Beware of this trick from the west and America because everyone is pushing you to go back under the thumb of the oppressive regime.

“Fighters in Syria, willingly arm yourselves, intensify your attacks and have no fear of their troops and their aircraft,” Jolani added.



Describing the truce as “shameful”, Jolani said: “Negotiations are the ones conducted on the battlefield.” But it was also reported that al-Nusra Front had withdrawn from six towns in Idlib.

Military analysts said the only ceasefire zones that would be implemented were in northern Hama, Dara’a, al-Ghaab plains, northern Homs and eastern Qalamoun. Government forces are expected to continue their wide-scale offensives in the Aleppo and Latakia governorates.

Syria’s army said this week it would exclude Darayya, an important rebel town near Damascus, from the cessation of hostilities because forces there included al-Nusra fighters.

Turkey has reservations about the viability of the ceasefire plan for Syria due to continued fighting on the ground. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, also signalled that recent tensions between Turkey and the US may be easing as Washington has become more “careful” in its support for Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters.

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[Anthea]

Reuters

Guns fall mostly silent as delicate Syria truce takes effect

Guns mostly fell silent in Syria and Russian air raids stopped on Saturday, the first day of a cessation of hostilities that the United Nations has described as the best hope for peace in five years of civil war.

Under the U.S.-Russian accord accepted by President Bashar al-Assad's government and many of his foes, fighting should cease so aid can reach civilians and talks can open to end a war that has killed more than 250,000 people and made 11 million homeless.

Russia, which says it intends to continue strikes against areas held by Islamist fighters that are not covered by the truce, said it would suspend all flights over Syria for the first day to ensure no wrong targets were hit by mistake.

The truce seemed largely to be holding, though rebels reported what they described as occasional government violations, and one commander warned that unchecked, the breaches could lead to the agreement's collapse.

Jaish al-Nasr, a group affiliated to the Free Syrian Army (FSA) which has backed the truce, said government forces had fired mortars, rockets and machine guns in Hama province and that warplanes had been constantly present in the sky.

"Compared to the previous days it is nothing, but we consider that they broke the truce," Mohamed Rasheed, head of the group's media office, told Reuters.

Another FSA-affiliated 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. But overall the level of violence was far reduced.

"Let's pray that this works because 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," U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said at a midnight news conference in Geneva.

"I think that the feeling that we have today is that the situation is very different but of course every day has to be monitored," he said.

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 intends to restart peace talks on March 7, provided the halt in fighting largely holds.

But there are weak spots in a fragile deal which has not been directly signed by the Syrian warring parties and is less binding than a formal ceasefire.

Importantly, it does not cover powerful jihadist groups such as Islamic State and the Nusra Front, al Qaeda's branch in Syria. Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb in Hama province. Nusra has called for redoubled attacks.

Moscow and Damascus say they will continue to fight them, and other rebels say they fear this stance may be used to justify attacks against them too.

The truce is the culmination of new diplomatic efforts that reflect a battlefield dramatically changed since Russia joined the war in September with air strikes to prop up Assad. Moscow's intervention effectively destroyed the hope his enemies have maintained for five years -- encouraged by Arab and Western states -- to topple him by force.

REPORTS OF VIOLENCE

Like several other rebel figures contacted by Reuters, Fares Bayoush, head of the Fursan al-Haqq rebel group which fights under the FSA banner, said front lines were far quieter. But he added that violations were taking place and if continued could lead to the "collapse of the agreement".

In early reports of violence, a Syrian rebel group in the northwest said three of its fighters had been killed while repelling an attack from government ground forces a few hours after the plan came into effect.

Syria's state media said at least six people were killed and several wounded in two suicide bomb attacks east of Hama city, including the car bomb claimed by Islamic State. Three children were killed and 12 wounded in an unspecified Islamic State attack in Joura neighoburhood in Deir al-Zor province.

Fadi Ahmad, spokesman for the FSA First Coastal Division in Latakia province said government helicopters had dropped eight "barrel bombs" on the area in the early afternoon. Assad's opponents have long accused the government of using such bombs -- oil drums packed with explosives -- to cause indiscriminate damage in rebel-held areas, which Damascus denies.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said government forces dropped five barrel bombs on the village on Najiya in Idlib province. The village is controlled by several groups including Nusra Front.

Nusra Front fighters pulled out of residential areas in several towns they run in Idlib province on Saturday to avoid being blamed by local people for civilian casualties if the areas are bombed by Russia, residents and rebel sources said.

The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said Islamic State fighters had attacked Tel Abyad, a town near the Turkish border, prompting air strikes by the U.S.-led coalition to try to drive them back.

Russia's Defence Ministry said it would suspend air strikes in a "green zone" -- defined as those parts of Syria held by groups that have accepted the cessation of hostilities -- and make no flights at all on Saturday.

"Given the entry into force of the U.N. Security Council resolution that supports the Russian-American agreements on a ceasefire, and to avoid any possible mistakes when carrying out strikes, Russian military planes, including long-range aviation, are not carrying out any flights over Syrian territory on Feb. 27," the ministry said.

Sergei Rudskoi, a lieutenant-general in the Russian air force, told a news briefing that Moscow had sent the United States a list of 6,111 fighters who had agreed to the ceasefire deal and 74 populated areas which should not be bombed.

"THERE IS CALM"

A rebel fighter said government forces briefly fired artillery at a village in Aleppo province, which he said was under the control of the Levant Front, another FSA group. But he said the frontline was quieter than before.

"There is calm. Yesterday at this time there were fierce battles. It is certainly strange, but the people are almost certain that the regime will breach the truce on the grounds of hitting Nusra. There is the sound of helicopters from the early morning," he told Reuters earlier on Saturday.

Fighting raged across much of western Syria right up until the cessation came into effect but there was calm in many parts of the country shortly after midnight, the Observatory said.

"In Damascus and its countryside ... for the first time in years, calm prevails," Observatory director Rami Abdulrahman said. "In Latakia, calm, and at the Hmeimim air base there is no plane activity," he said, referring to the Latakia base where Russia's warplanes operate.

After years in which any action by the United Nations Security Council was blocked by Moscow, Russia's intervention has opened a path for multilateral diplomacy while undermining the long-standing Western demand that Assad leave power.

The Security Council unanimously demanded late on Friday that all parties to the conflict comply with terms of the plan.

U.N.-backed peace talks, the first in two years and the first to include delegations from Damascus and the rebels, collapsed earlier this month before they began, with the rebels saying they could not negotiate while they were being bombed.

The government, backed by Russian air strikes, has dramatically advanced in recent weeks, moving close to encircling Aleppo, Syria's biggest city before the war, and threatening to seal the Turkish border that has served as the main lifeline for rebel-held areas.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-midea ... SKCN0VZ2Z6

[Londoner]

There was no calm on W Kurdistan front. ISIS attacked Grdi Spy, Tell Abiad, the arabised version name. But the attackers completely eliminated. Unfortunately 20 Kurdish soldiers martyred.

[Anthea]

There was no calm on W Kurdistan front. ISIS attacked Grdi Spy, Tell Abiad, the arabised version name. But the attackers completely eliminated. Unfortunately 20 Kurdish soldiers martyred.

Lovely to have you back again Londoner

The jihadists have not joined in the ceasefire

[Anthea]

Mail Online

Russia reports Syria ceasefire breaches

Russia said on Sunday that a fragile ceasefire in Syria had been breached nine times over the past 24 hours, including from Turkish territory, but that the deal was mostly holding.

The defence ministry said violations were committed by moderate rebels as well as "terrorist organisations".

"Over the past 24 hours, nine instances of violations of cessation of hostilities have been uncovered," the ministry said, citing its coordination centre at the Hmeimim airbase in Syria.

"On the whole, the ceasefire regime in Syria is being implemented," it said of the deal brokered by Moscow and Washington which took effect from 2200 GMT Friday.

"At the same time there are a number of violations by groups of 'moderate' opposition and units of international terrorist organisations."

The ministry highlighted an attack on the town of Tal Abyad on the border with Turkey.

A group of up to 100 fighters, who crossed the border from Turkey, mounted an attack on the northern part of Tal Abyad, it said, adding they were acting in unison with other fighters.

- 'Fire from Turkish territory' -

"The activities of the armed groups were supported by artillery fire from Turkish territory," the chief of the coordination centre, Lieutenant General Sergei Kuralenko, said in televised remarks.

"Kurdish rebel units had pushed the fighters out of the city by morning of February 28."

Moscow said it had demanded an explanation from the United States, which leads an anti-IS coalition that includes Turkey.

Turkey has said it is not bound by the ceasefire deal if its national security was threatened.

The Tal Abyad attack was "confirmed through several channels including representatives of the Syrian Democratic Forces," Kuralenko was quoted as saying by Russian reporters, referring to a US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Kurdish forces and their Arab allies successfully pushed back a fierce IS offensive by Saturday night with backing from the US-led coalition.

In Latakia, Al-Nusra Front jihadists, acting from territory controlled by moderate rebels, shelled a unit of Desert Falcons, the Russian ministry said, apparently referring to an Iranian-backed regime force.

"As a result of the shelling there are a lot of dead and wounded among rebels and locals."

Russia also said Damascus was shelled six times Saturday, adding that the attack came from territory controlled by moderate rebels including Eastern Ghouta, east of the capital.

"All in all, 20 mine and missile explosions have been recorded," Moscow said, adding two civilians were killed and eight wounded.

"At the request of the Russian centre for reconciliation, Syrian government troops did not open return fire," the ministry said.

Moscow said its coordination centre had also received a US list of 69 armed groups who had confirmed their willingness to observe the ceasefire.

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