“The silence regime introduced from April 30, 2016 for 72 hours in the northern districts of the Latakia province and for 24 hours in the suburb of Damascus – Eastern Ghouta – is observed”.
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Russian Federation says talks are taking place to include Syria’s Aleppo province in the latest temporary truce – as once again the diplomatic machine cranks into gear, shaken by a series of bombings.
Almost 10 days of bombardments by both the government side and insurgents in the city of Aleppo has killed more than 250 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, confounding hopes of an end to five years of war.
Speaking from Russia’s Hmeimim air force base in Syria, Lt Gen Sergei Kuralenko told Russian news agencies that “active negotiations” were under way to establish a “regime of calm in Aleppo province”.
This figure included around 140 people killed by government-aligned forces in air strikes and shelling of rebel-held areas, including 19 children, it said.
The Syrian army confirmed the extension for Damascus, state television reported, but made no mention of Aleppo.
With the peace process hanging by a thread, US Secretary of State John Kerry was due to fly to Geneva yesterday for talks with United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura and the Saudi and Jordanian foreign ministers.
But Aleppo was excluded from the agreement, with the regime in Damascus and its Iran-backed militia allies having signaled their will to take back all of the city with Russian help.
Early on Sunday the provincial capital’s rebel-held east was eerily quiet, an AFP correspondent said, with the last air strike there at around 1:00 am (2200 GMT Saturday) local time.
Rockets were fired Sunday from rebel-held areas into the west without causing casualties, it said.
Regime warplanes hit two clinics, a vegetable market and a mosque in rebel-held areas in Aleppo in a series of airstrikes, killing at least 11 civilians, activists and medics said.
Full control of Aleppo would be a huge prize for President Assad.
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“The secretary expressed his deep concern about the deteriorating situation in Aleppo, where the… regime (of President Bashar al-Assad) continues to escalate the conflict by predominantly targeting innocent civilians and parties to the cessation of hostilities – not Nusra, as the regime falsely claims”, Mr Kirby said in a statement.
