A nervous calm has descended on Syria on the first full day of an agreed ceasefire as an American- and Russian-brokered deal largely appears to have taken hold across the country.
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Who brokered it: The deal was hammered out by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Geneva. The Syrian army said it would abide by the cease-fire until midnight Sunday, while maintaining its right to defend itself against any violations.
Various militants backed by the US and its Arab allies coordinate and even sometimes fight alongside al-Qaida-linked militants. But distinguishing protected rebels from jihadists is hard, particularly with regards to a group formerly called the Nusra Front, which was al-Qaeda’s Syria branch until it changed its name in July.
In a videolink briefing from Aleppo on Monday, deputy head of the Russian reconciliation center in Syria Sergei Kapitsyn said the Castello Road is now controlled by pro-government forces, but will become a demilitarized zone for the delivery of aid.
Russian Federation and the United States would then begin sharing intelligence and coordinating their attacks on Jabhat al-Nusra, the former al-Qaida affiliate now known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, or Front for the Conquest of Syria.
Turkey is a key backer of Syria’s opposition and has regularly called for President Bashar Assad to step down.
State Department spokesman John Kirby said the plan did not call for a complete grounding of the Syrian air force, but rather to keep it away from US -backed rebels and civilian targets.
But in Aleppo, the northern city that has emerged as the epicenter of the fighting, opposition media activist Mahmoud Raslan said government helicopters dropped crude barrel bombs on a contested neighborhood. It also reported shelling near the Castello road, northwest of the city, and the Ramouseh area in the south – both main arteries leading to Aleppo.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, estimates that up to 430,000 people have been killed in the conflict, although an accurate estimate is nearly impossible to obtain. Another activist group, the Local Coordination Committees, reported shelling in Aleppo and the southern region of Quneitra.
Syrian men carrying babies make their way through the rubble of destroyed buildings following a reported air strike on the rebel-held Salihin neighbourhood of the northern city of Aleppo, on September 11, 2016.
Syrian opposition activists and monitoring groups say the cease-fire in Syria appears to be holding since coming into effect the previous night, despite sporadic and minor violations.
Within an hour after the latest cease-fire began at sundown on Monday, residents in rebel-controlled parts of Aleppo city said government helicopters had dropped barrel bombs and troops were shelling the road meant to deliver humanitarian aid to besieged residents there. The Anadolu agency said the trucks left around noon, with a total of 40 trucks expected to cross the border by the end of the day.
The architects of the truce hope it can pave the way for the delivery of humanitarian aid to besieged areas and lead to the resumption of peace talks aimed at ending the 5 ½ year conflict. As the cease-fire came into effect, Kerry urged Syrian rebels to distance themselves from al-Qaida-linked militants.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters on Tuesday that Moscow wants the deal, which launched a nationwide cessation of hostilities in Syria, to be made public but that the US opposes such a move.
U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura was monitoring the ceasefire very closely, a spokeswoman said, but she declined to comment on how it was being observed so far.
In a toll released Tuesday, the Observatory announced that the number of people killed in the Syrian conflict since March 2011 has climbed above 300,000. It said on Tuesday that the dead include 59,000 government troops and more than 86,000 civilians.
The group says the real death toll could be 70,000 higher since many insurgent groups don’t announce their deaths and because there are other deaths that are not documented.
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Russian Federation and the US unveiled the latest effort to secure a cease-fire in Syria after talks in Geneva on Friday. Two surface-to-air missiles were also fired from Syrian territory, but no Israeli aircraft were harmed, Israel’s army said.
