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Syrian Rebel Group Declares Ceasefire Over

There was no immediate word from Iranian-backed Hezbollah or the Syrian military.

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A ceasefire between the warring sides in a Syrian town and two villages has been extended until Sunday, sources on both sides said on Friday.

The two villages in Idlib are under government control but are besieged by rebel opposition group Ahrar al-Sham, while Zabadani is the last remaining stronghold for the opposition in the Qalamoun moundatin and has been under near constant attack by Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah militias which support Assad.

According to Syrian sources, a child and her father were killed and a dozen other people were injured in the shelling of the villages of Fo’aa and Kefraya on Saturday.

Government forces and allies were shelling rebel positions in Zabadani, Abdel Rahman said.

“The reason for the failure of the negotiations was the focus of the other side on demographic changes and its lack of concern for the humanitarian conditions of the civilians”, Ahrar al-Sham spokesman Ahmed Qara Ali said in a written statement sent to Reuters.

It wasn’t immediately known whether the mortar attacks would bring the truce to a collapse, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The truce agreement between rebel groups and pro-regime factions, including Lebanon’s Shia Hezbollah group, came into effect in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Before its expiry on Saturday morning, intensive negotiations had been under way for an extension of the ceasefire and a full deal.

Iran has been backing the Assad government throughout the war, while Turkey was quick to abandon their traditional alliance with Syria and endorse the rebels, and recently have been seen as pretty cozy with al-Qaeda’s Islamist bloc, which controls part of the northwest.

While the ceasefire has been agreed upon, Abdel Rahman told AFP negotiations were ongoing regarding the withdrawal of all rebel fighters from Zabadani, as well as a halt to the siege of Fuaa and Kafraya.

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“It’s not clear if the breaches are attempts by the parties to improve the conditions of the deal or come from those who want to thwart the negotiations”.

People look at damaged buildings at Al Zabadani