A temporary truce in the Syrian battleground city of Aleppo was extended for 72 hours from 00:01 yesterday, as clashes raged further south.
The extended pause in fighting for Aleppo comes as international condemnation mounted over deadly air strikes on a camp for displaced people in northern Syria, which the regime and its Russian ally have denied responsibility for.
The Russian Ministry of Defence said the fragile ceasefire had been extended “in order to prevent the situation from worsening” just minutes before the initial 48-hour truce for the city was due to expire.”
Photo: AFP
“The regime of silence in the province of Latakia and in the city of Aleppo has been extended from 00:01 on May 7 for 72 hours,” the ministry said in a statement.
The US — which has been working with Moscow to pressure the regime to stop the violence and revive a landmark nationwide ceasefire agreed in February — also confirmed the extension.
“While we welcome this recent extension, our goal is to get to a point where we no longer have to count the hours and that the cessation of hostilities is fully respected across Syria,” US Department of State spokesman John Kirby said.
The international community hopes that a drop in fighting can galvanize faltering peace talks to end a five-year war that has killed more than 270,000 people and displaced millions.
Calm returned to the streets of Aleppo after the ceasefire first came into force at midnight on Thursday, giving residents some respite from two weeks of fighting that killed more than 280 civilians.
However, south of the city, clashes between regime forces and jihadists and their allies have killed more than 70 on both sides, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday.
Al-Nusra Front and allied militants seized Khan Tuman and surrounding villages in less than 24 hours, the Observatory said, after pro-regime troops had driven them out in December last year.
Women and children were reported to be among 28 civilians killed in Thursday’s raids on the camps near the Turkish border, which also wounded 50.
Aleppo-based pro-rebel Shahba Press news agency director Mamun al-Khatib accused “regime aircraft” of firing missiles at the camp in al-Kammouna village on Thursday — an accusation Damascus denied.
“There is no truth in the information in some media that the Syrian air force targeted the displaced camp in Idlib province,” the official Syrian Arab News Agency quoted the military as saying.
Russia’s military also insisted no aircraft flew over the camp on Thursday, suggesting al-Nusra Front could have shelled it.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was “outraged” by the attack on the camp and said those responsible must face justice.
Ban demanded once again that the UN Security Council refer Syria to the International Criminal Court so that the tribunal can open up investigations of possible war crimes.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said the camp’s tents could clearly be seen from the air so it was “extremely unlikely” to have been an accident.
“It is far more likely they were deliberate and amount to a war crime,” he said.
Regime aircraft have previously targeted groups other than al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State group, which are not covered by the Feb. 27 ceasefire between the regime and non-jihadist rebels.
In central Syria, regime forces launched an assault against a prison in the central city of Hama aimed at ending a mutiny, the Observatory said.
The mutiny began on Monday after an attempt to transfer inmates to the military-run Saydnaya prison near Damascus.
Human Rights Watch said it had received WhatsApp messages from inmates saying that security forces “were attempting to storm their prison block, using tear gas and rubber bullets.”
It said the assault “raises major concerns about possible excessive use of force.”
As warplanes hit the Idlib camp on Thursday, Syria’s regime celebrated its recapture of the ancient city of Palmyra with a concert in its amphitheatre.
A second concert conducted by Valery Gergiev was staged in the floodlit amphitheatre on Friday.
Before regime troops backed by Russian warplanes retook Palmyra in late March, the theater was a backdrop for Islamic State executions.
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