At least 30 people were reported killed and dozens wounded in an air attack on a vegetable market in the city of Idlib, hours after the United States and Russian Federation hailed a breakthrough deal to put Syria’s peace process back on track.
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The UK based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said jets believed to be either Syrian or Russian also hit rebel-held towns in the northern Aleppo countryside including Anadan and Hreitan along important insurgent supply routes.
There were also airstrikes in other parts of the Idlib province including near Jisr al-Shughur, Ain Al-Bayda, Hambushia and Bidama.
In Aleppo, at least 46 civilians, including nine children, were killed in a bombardment of opposition-held areas, reported Al Jazeera.
The attack, which the opposition called a “massacre”, is believed to have been carried out by government jets or those of allied Russian Federation.
Specifically, it calls for a “demilitarised zone” around the Castello Road leading into Aleppo so that desperately needed assistance can get into the city.
The Geneva negotiating session, which lasted more than 13 hours, underscored the complexity of a conflict that includes myriad militant groups, shifting alliances and the rival interests of the USA and Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran, and Turkey and the Kurds.
The accord included a truce to start across Syria at sunset Monday, the first day of the Muslim Eid al-Adha festival.
Other factions less closely tied to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, including those backed by Turkish ground forces in the northern frontier area, will publicly commit to the agreement, according to the Ahrar al-Sham official. Kerry said the “bedrock” of the new deal was an agreement that the Syrian government would not fly combat missions in an agreed area on the pretext of hunting fighters from the Nusra Front, an Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria which recently changed its name to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.
The agreement between Russian Federation and the United States that is meant to put an end to five years of civil war has received a green light from Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.
The ultimate hope is to silence the Syrian guns so that the long-stalled peace process under United Nations mediation can resume between Mr. Assad’s envoys and representatives of the opposition, while the two world powers focus on battling jihadists.
The deal reached in Geneva on Friday did not touch on Assad’s fate, but it calls on Moscow to exert its influence on the regime – highlighting the fact that Syria’s post-war leadership remains key to resolving the conflict.
Basma Kodmani of the Higher Negotiating Committee said Russian Federation should pressure Assad’s government to abide by the agreement reached early Saturday.
Syria’s moderate Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels said on Saturday they saw were skeptical the deal would be enforced as Damascus and Moscow had continued bombing their areas under earlier truces. “We are waiting with a lot of anxiety”.
The U.N. envoy for Syria says his office will monitor the start of a U.S. -Russia-brokered cease-fire in Syria “carefully before making any hurried comments”.
Later, the truce collapsed under pressure from localised fighting and a failed UN-backed political process to end the violence.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier welcomed the new agreement between Washington and Moscow, describing their negotiations as a hard process “due to differing interests”.
Syria has been gripped by civil war since March 2011 with various terrorist groups, including Daesh (also known as ISIS or ISIL), now controlling parts of it.
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For more than five years, the Syrian people have suffered a catastrophic series of wars that have killed or injured hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions.
