Syria's government and rebel leaders have agreed a ceasefire, but its chances of success were already put in doubt by a series of opposition victories in the northern city of Aleppo.
A rebel battles troops in Aleppo Photo: AFP/GETTY
By Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent, and Ruth Sherlock in Beirut
7:24PM BST 25 Oct 2012
A statement by the Syrian army confirmed it would break off fighting from Friday morning to Monday, coinciding with the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha. But it reserved the right to respond if "the armed terrorist groups open fire on civilians and government forces, attack public and private properties, or use car bombs and explosives".
Gen Mustafa al-Sheikh, the closest thing the disparate and factionalised rebel forces have to a leader, also said he agreed "in principle", adding that most of the Free Syrian Army's brigades and units had also agreed to the proposal.
The ceasefire had been backed by a unanimous vote at the United Nations Security Council. However, Jabhat al-Nusra, a large, militant Islamist brigade, had already rejected it, calling it a "filthy plan".
The agreement came after the regime of President Bashar al-Assad pulled back troops from three districts of Aleppo.
Rebels first moved into a Kurdish area, Ashrafiyah. The rebels then took two Christian neighbourhoods in the heart of the city, Qadimah and Jdeidah, home to some of Aleppo's best-known tourist sites, including the Baron Hotel, where Lawrence of Arabia stayed.
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One Christian man, who left Aleppo on Thursday, said that rebels had threatened the inhabitants of the area they captured.
"One hundred people came and shouted 'Allahu akbar' in front of the Christians," he said. "They stayed there four to five hours. Most people in Syria don't like the government or the terrorist people – we need to live.
"We don't need this thing to happen in Aleppo. We don't like these people to come to talk to us. This area is for Christians, not for these people."
Yasser al-Hajji, an activist linked to Aleppo’s biggest brigade, the Liwa al-Tawhid, said regime troops were surrounded in the centre of the city, where they still control the 13-century Citadel, and were also being attacked in the police headquarters near Ashrafiyah.
The regime has had difficulty resupplying its forces in Aleppo after the main road from Idlib province was cut by rebel action. However, it still has a heavy concentration of troops south-west of the city, and controls both the main international airport and the military airbase nearby to the south-east.
Some activists believe the withdrawal is a plot designed to entice the rebels into breaking the ceasefire, thus justifying a regime retaliation.
Gen Sheikh told Al-Jazeera television he remained suspicious of the government's motives. "It's one more way of manipulating public opinion," he said. He said a test would be if peaceful protests were allowed to take place over the weekend.
The agreement, if it holds, would be an unexpected success for Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations and Arab League peace envoy.
The US state department said it hoped the government honoured the ceasefire.
"What we are hoping and expecting is that they will not just 'talk the talk' of ceasefire, but that they will 'walk the walk,' beginning with the regime, and we will be watching very closely," State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland said.
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, also welcomed the announcement, but his spokesman said the "world is now watching" to see if the guns fall silent on Friday.
UN officials said they were preparing aid to be taken to beleaguered civilian populations and refugees across the country if the fighting stops.
Separately, members of a UN commission investigating suspected war crimes in Syria said they were hoping to travel to Damascus to interview Mr Assad.
"Those responsible for these crimes should be put to justice," Carla del Ponte, former prosecutor at the international tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia, said.
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