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Ahead of truce, Assad vows to retake Syria from ‘terrorists’

(Syrian Presidency via Facebook).

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Turkey is a leading backer of the rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar Assad.

The United States and Russian Federation announced a deal Saturday that would establish a nationwide cease-fire starting on Monday, followed a week later by an new military partnership targeting Islamic State and al-Qaida militants as well as the establishment of new limits on the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad forces.

Assad made a rare public appearance to celebrate the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday in Daraya, where state media showed him attending prayers at the Saad Bin Moaz mosque.

Rebel fighters said they had been forced to agree on the deal with the government after the siege created a humanitarian crisis for Daraya’s remaining residents.

“I think that probably at the very beginning of October (U.N. Syria envoy Staffan) de Mistura should invite all the parties”, Bogdanov, who is a special presidential representative for the Middle East and Africa, was quoted as saying.

The cease-fire, announced Saturday by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, calls for a halt to fighting between the U.S. -backed opposition and the Russian-allied Syrian government.

Syria’s main opposition group the High Negotiations Committee – grouping political dissidents as well as armed rebel factions – had yet to formally respond.

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.

It is not clear how these governments intend to distinguish between Jabhat Fatah al-Sham and other rebel factions or how they will be able to attack militants without hitting USA -backed rebels, as well. Mr Assad’s key allies – Russia, Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah – have also endorsed the deal.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said several civilian rescuers were injured when a strike in the town of Saraqeb hit a civil defence centre.

In the aftermath, rebels and opposition activists were asking on Sunday whether the government’s side could be trusted.

Ahead of the ceasefire, ruinous violence killed many people in several parts of the country, particularly in government air raids, as the sides appeared to be trying to strengthen their positions on the eve of the ceasefire. A partial “cessation of hostilities” that brought sorely needed relief to civilians in March unravelled as the government continued to strike targets in opposition areas, including near a hospital and school near Damascus and a marketplace in Idlib province, killing dozens of civilians.

The Obama administration has repeatedly stated there is no military solution to the prolonged Syrian crisis, which has killed hundreds of thousands of Syrians and displaced 12 million people from their homes, according to United Nations estimates.

In Turkey, meanwhile, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated his earlier calls for establishing a no-fly zone in northern Syria, saying it is essential to boosting security in the area.

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Turkey aims to send more than 30 trucks of food, children’s clothes and toys to the Syrian city of Aleppo on Monday, with a truce negotiated between the United States and Russian Federation due to come into effect at sundown, officials said. US secretary of state John Kerry said that USA -backed opposition groups will separate themselves from the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) militants operating in Syria, as well as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham.

Russia-US-brokered Syria cease-fire to start at sunset