Initially, the deal forged by USA secretary of state John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, allows the Syrian air force to continue strikes in areas where ISIL or Jabhat Fatah Al Sham (formerly known as Al Nusra Front) are present.
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Activists reported the cease-fire was holding despite some violations, though the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group warned the rate of violations had escalated and three civilians were killed, including two children.
Staffan de Mistura, the UN’s Syria envoy, on Tuesday hailed the truce for bringing about “a significant drop in violence” despite isolated skirmishes. Two of the most radical rebel factions, the Islamic State and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, which was once the al-Qaida affiliate in Iraq, have denounced the cease-fire as a U.S. He said he has also been in touch with the Americans to get Syrian armed groups to cooperate.
But disagreements between warring sides and concerns about safety are delaying emergency deliveries, the United Nations says.
The Syrian government has not confirmed or reported this news.
In the embattled city of Aleppo, de Mistura said people on the ground say “the situation has “dramatically improved” with no airstrikes”.
The U.N. has estimated that well over half a million people are living under siege in Syria, while independent monitor Siege Watch says that number actually exceeds 1 million.
However, some 20 trucks carrying U.N aid and destined for rebel-held eastern Aleppo remained in the customs area on the border with Turkey on Wednesday “because of lack of de facto assurances of safe passage by all parties”, Jens Laerke, deputy spokesman for the United Nations office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told The Associated Press in an email.
Lt. Gen. Vladimir Savchenko, the head of the Russian Reconciliation Center, said the Syrian army withdrew its armor, artillery and other weapons north of the Castello road early on Thursday, in line with the U.S. -Russia-brokered cease-fire.
The ceasefire extension “provides us a critical window of opportunity” to assist people there, said David Swanson, a spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Syrian children play in the street in the rebel-controlled town of Hamouria as they celebrate the third day of the Al-Adha Eid Muslim holiday on the second day of an internally backed ceasefire on September 14, 2016.
Russian Federation and American officials have said the agreement is meant to set the stage for peace talks to resolve the Syrian war, now in its sixth year.
Under the agreement, all fighting between Syrian government forces and the rebels named in the accord must cease.
“This ceasefire was brought about by outside powers – it was brought about by the United States and Russian Federation, and then basically the warring parties here were told that they are to abide by the ceasefire, so its very, very fragile”, Pleitgen said. “The regime is refusing to allow aid into Aleppo”, said an activist based in the city, Baraa al-Halaby.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Wednesday said no fatalities have occurred in Homs, Latakia, Hama, the Damascus suburbs, Idlib and the rest of the Syrian areas included in the deal that began Monday.
Elsehwere in the same province, an airstrike Thursday on the IS-held town of Mayadeen killed at least four people and wounded dozens, said opposition activists and Deir el-Zour 24, an activist collective. The raids, he said, had killed 250 people and destroyed up to 15 trucks containing heavy machine guns.
The U.S. and Russian Federation announced the deal on Friday, as NPR’s Alice Fordham reported.
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The truce does not include the Islamic State group.
