Tags: ML | Syria

Syrian Army Extends Damascus Cease-fire by 48 Hours

Monday, 02 May 2016 09:15 AM EDT

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria's military extended a unilateral cease-fire around Damascus and opposition strongholds in the eastern suburbs of the capital for another 48 hours on Monday, as a humanitarian convoy delivered aid to 12,000 families trapped in a government-besieged area in central Syria.

In Geneva, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday said that "several proposals" were being discussed aimed at finding a way to restore at least a partial truce in the war-torn country.

The latest partial truce in Syria does not cover Aleppo, the country's largest city and the scene of its worst violence in recent weeks.

Aleppo remains on knife's edge as rebels and government forces trade rockets and bombs across the northern city and its outskirts, according to activist monitoring groups.

Rebels on Monday lobbed rockets into government-held areas in the western part of the city while government helicopters dropped crude and unguided "barrel bombs" on opposition-held areas in the city and surrounding villages, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Separately, a car bomb detonated in the rebel-held Salhin neighborhood of Aleppo, appearing to target an Islamic judiciary council. The explosion wounded a lawyer and several other people, according to the Local Coordination Committees, an activist network.

The Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, which organizes rescue operations in opposition-held areas of Aleppo, said several civilians were killed and wounded, including a judge for the hard-line jihadist faction Ahrar al-Sham.

Still, Aleppo was safer Monday and Sunday than it had been in over a week. Fierce violence took the lives of more than 250 civilians over the previous nine days, according to the Observatory, while only six died in violence Sunday.

The government declared its cease-fire on Friday around Damascus, the capital's eastern Ghouta suburbs, and the coastal Latakia region, in the wake of two weeks of rising violence that spoiled a previous cease-fire brokered by the U.S. and Russia in late February.

Russia's Tass news agency quoted Russian Lt. Gen. Sergei Kuralenko, head of the Russian coordination center in Syria, as saying that the Damascus area cease-fire was brokered by the Russia and the United States, "in agreement with the Syrian leadership and the moderate opposition."

But more than three dozen rebel factions said Saturday they would not respect the truce unless the government agreed to extend it over the whole country. Russian and American officials said they were working to arrange a truce for Aleppo.

Meanwhile, relief efforts by the International Committee for the Red Cross continued with a convoy of 13 ICRC trucks and 3 trucks from the Syrian Arab Crescent delivering food, hygiene items, diapers, and school books to the besieged town of Talbiseh, north of the central city of Homs, ICRC spokesperson Pawel Krzysiek said Monday.

The population of Talbiseh has doubled to 60,000 with the influx of displaced residents from other areas, according to the ICRC.

Pawell says the joint ICRC and SARC team will assess medical, water, and sewage infrastructure in Talbiseh and neighboring villages.

© Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


MiddleEast
Syria's military extended a unilateral cease-fire around Damascus and opposition strongholds in the eastern suburbs of the capital for another 48 hours on Monday, as a humanitarian convoy delivered aid to 12,000 families trapped in a government-besieged area in central...
ML,Syria
503
2016-15-02
Monday, 02 May 2016 09:15 AM
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