The second in command of the powerful, ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham group condemned the superpower agreement as an effort to secure President Bashar Assad’s government and drive rebel factions apart.
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The ceasefire, agreed to after weeks of tough talks between Russian Federation and the United States, is to go into effect at sundown on Monday in a bid to create the groundwork for restarting stalled peace talks to end almost six years of conflict.
Ahrar al-Sham, which has an influential presence on the ground in Syria’s brutal war, is the first rebel group to officially react to the deal reached on Friday following marathon talks in Geneva.
On Saturday, presumed Russian or government airstrikes on rebel-held Idlib and Aleppo provinces killed over 90 civilians, including 13 children in an attack on a marketplace in Idlib, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
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.
Men carry infants through the rubble of buildings destroyed in an air strike on a rebel-held neighborhood in the city of Aleppo.
Syria’s government has not issued an official comment on the truce, but on Saturday Syrian state media quoted what it called private sources as saying the government had given its approval. The deal has received the endorsement of President Bashar Assad’s government and its key allies – Russia, Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Damage is seen near produce stands after airstrikes on a market in the rebel-controlled city of Idlib, Syria on September 10, 2016.
They added in their letter that its exclusion from the ceasefire would be used by Russian Federation as a pretext to bomb other rebel groups, citing their experience of a failed cessation of hostilities earlier this year.
Fierce fighting and air strikes continued in several parts of Syria a day before the humanitarian truce comes into effect, Syrian state television, rebel groups and a war monitor said.
Fateh al-Sham is not covered by the truce agreement but it too dismissed the plan, with spokesman Mostafa Mahamed writing on Twitter: “Negotiations and deals which do not take account of fighters on the ground are useless”.
In a letter to armed opposition groups seen by Reuters, Michael Ratney urged them to abide by the U.S.
It said the deal failed to meet the minimum goals of the movement and would increase the suffering of the Syrian people.
Illustrating how widely insurgents work with the former al Qaeda affiliate, Ahrar al-Sham was one of several rebel groups to announce the launch of an offensive in the southwest in coordination with Jabhat Fateh al-Sham on Saturday.
If the truce holds for a week, the United States and Russian Federation would then cooperate against jihadist groups like IS and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.
More air strikes were reported in Aleppo and Idlib province on Sunday after scores of people were killed in aerial bombardment on Saturday.
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One strike in the town of Saraqeb hit a civil defense center where civilian rescuers are based, injuring several, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a United Kingdom -based monitor of the war said.
