A major Syrian rebel group said the war has not stopped since a cessation of hostilities agreement came into effect, accusing the Syrian government of violations and saying a ceasefire was not possible while “militias and states kill our people.”
The Jaysh al-Islam group is one of the biggest rebel factions fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in western Syria and an influential member of the main Saudi-backed opposition council, the High Negotiations Committee.
A UN official on Thursday said the cessation of hostilities that came into effect on Saturday last week was holding, but remained fragile and that incidents have been contained in the provinces of Homs, Hama, Latakia and Damascus.
Photo: Reuters
However, yesterday Jaysh al-Islam said government forces were mobilizing in an attempt to seize more opposition-held territory, having already taken other areas this week.
“There are big violations by the regime and occupation of new areas, the use of all types of weapons, particularly planes and barrel bombs in some areas, and mobilizations to occupy very important strategic areas,” Jaysh al-Islam political office head Mohammed Alloush told reporters.
He also said aid delivered in recent days to opposition-held areas blockaded by the government “is not enough to meet 10 percent of the needs, and nothing has entered most of the areas.”
Jaysh al-Islam earlier said: “Our confrontations with the [al-]Assad gangs did not stop, whether in the Ghouta, in Homs, or in Aleppo, and as far as we are concerned, the war effectively did not stop on the ground in the shadow of these violations.”
Jaysh al-Islam said it faced a difficult military situation on one important front line at al-Maraj outside Damascus, where government forces have gained ground since the cessation of hostilities agreement came into effect.
“The regime has been launching a fierce attack on the area for more than four months and we were surprised that after the declaration of the truce by the international community that this attack continued,” Jaysh al-Islam said in a statement.
The government has accused rebels of violating the agreement.
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