Syria’s fragile ceasefire has entered its second day with reports of scattered airstrikes and bombings, but overall the slowdown in fighting – regarded as the most successful effort yet to reduce the bloodshed in the five-year civil war – appeared to be holding.
Warplanes, believed to be either Syrian or Russian, bombed seven villages in the provinces of Aleppo and Hama, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Several airstrikes hit central and northern Syria on Sunday, a monitor said. The Russian coordinating unit in Syria said there had been nine breaches of the ceasefire, although the partial cessation of hostilities appeared to be broadly intact. Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Britain-based monitor, said one person had been killed in Aleppo province.
“[Saturday] was the first day that people could really go out and walk in the streets,” a Syrian opposition leader told Reuters.
The US and Russia are monitoring the ceasefire from separate command centres. The two superpowers are responsible for deciding whether some attacks on eitherIslamic State (Isis) or the al-Nusra Front, two jihadi organisations excluded from the deal, are permissible. The two groups occupy at least half of Syria, but maps drawn up by the US and Russia do not show exactly the same territories that are excluded from the ceasefire.
Both superpowers have accepted there will be contested ceasefire breaches, and the real test of the deal will be whether they can not only agree that a breach has occurred but also prevent a repetition.
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