But according to the letter, the groups are anxious by the absence of enforcement mechanisms, a lack of provision for besieged areas and clauses letting army jets fly for up to nine days after the deal comes into effect.
Advertisement
The latest bloodshed comes a day after air raids by unidentified warplanes hit two key northern cities in opposition-held territory.
The potential breakthrough deal, which launches a nationwide cessation of hostilities by sundown Monday, will hinge on compliance by Mr. Assad’s Russian-backed forces and USA -supported rebel groups, plus key regional powers such as Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia with hands directly or indirectly in Syria’s five-and-a-half years of carnage.
Another 12 civilians were killed in unidentified strikes on several neighbourhoods of Aleppo city, and 18 people died in bombardment of other parts of Aleppo province, the Observatory said.
“Civilians have no hope anymore”.
The ceasefire agreement, which state news agency SANA said the Syrian government has signed onto, would last for 48 hours before being extended.
They added in their letter that its exclusion from the ceasefire would be used by Russian Federation as a pretext to bomb other rebel groups, citing their experience of a failed cessation of hostilities earlier this year. Assad and Hezbollah-backer Iran accepted the deal on Sunday. The leader of at least one US -backed rebel faction has publicly called the offer a “trap”.
Leading HNC member Bassma Kodmani told AFP that her group “cautiously welcomed” the deal but was sceptical that Damascus would comply.
The Ahrar Al-Sham is a hardline opposition group known to be as close affiliate of the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham Front, formerly known as the Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front, who also rejected the truce proposal.
Ahmad Saoud, head of the US-backed Division 13 rebel group, wrote on Twitter he was “starting to feel that the truce is a military trap to kill us even more”.
Citing “informed sources”, it said “the entire agreement was reached with the knowledge of the Syrian government”.
Millions have fled overseas, many of them seeking asylum in the European Union, but almost 18 million people remain in Syria, which has been carved up by fighting between government and rebel forces.
Video footage has shown the aftermath of deadly air strikes on a busy marketplace in north-west Syria, as fighting continues before a breakthrough peace deal announced by the United States and Russian Federation takes force.
In the capital Damascus, resident Taher Ibrahim said he did not expect any lasting respite from the fighting.
The agreement was reached after talks between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva.
To get aid into Aleppo, a “demilitarised zone” would be established around the Castello Road into the city. -Russian agreement. He said it created a “real window of opportunity which all relevant actors in the region and beyond should seize, to put the crisis in Syria on a different path and reduce the violence and suffering of the Syrian people”.
Several previous negotiated cease-fires have all eventually collapsed.
Advertisement
“The factions welcome a ceasefire and welcome the incoming of aid, but have reservations about some points. what are the sanctions if the regime doesn’t abide by it?” said Zakaria Malahifji of the Aleppo-based rebel group Fastaqim.
