A car-bomb in Damascus killed at least five people and gun-battles were reported elsewhere in Syria as a four-day ceasefire agreed by both sides began to unravel.
A bomb exploded near a mosque and a temporary playground erected for the holiday in the Daf al-shouq district of southern Damascus Photo: EPA
By Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent and Ruth Sherlock in Beirut
7:05PM BST 26 Oct 2012
At least 47 deaths were reported across Syria on the first day of a truce called to mark the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.
Despite the clashes and defying many expectations, the ceasefire established a tenuous hold in parts of the country and, by the recent bloody standards of the conflict, the number of fatalities was considerably lower than normal.
In some of Syria's most fiercely contested battlegrounds, including the cities of Aleppo and Idlib, rebels and government soldiers alike silenced their weapons in respect for the truce.
Although it was hardly the Eid of old, a feast day when restaurants would normally be filled with celebrating patrons, some families took advantage of the respite to venture briefly back to their homes and visit each other. In some rebel-held districts of Aleppo, children were even seen playing on the streets.
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Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, made a rare public appearance as well, attending prayers to mark the beginning of the holiday at a mosque in central Damascus. He was shown on state television chatting with other worshippers.
Bashar al-Assad attends prayers in central Damascus (AFP/Getty)
Anti-government protesters also ventured back onto the streets to demand the fall of the regime, reprising scenes that were seen in the early stages of the uprising before the violence grew so intense that peaceful demonstrations became all but impossible.
But by nightfall hopes that the truce could hold were fading. In the most potentially incendiary incident of the day, a bomb exploded near a mosque and a temporary playground erected for the holiday in the Daf al-shouq district of southern Damascus. A number of children were among dozens wounded in the blasts.
Although many similar bombings have been carried out by Islamists fighting on the periphery of the rebellion, opposition fighters blamed the government and anger over the attack seemed likely to prompt retaliation.
"Everyone in this area is with the revolution," said Omar al-Homsi, a rebel with the Free Syrian Army who has spent several months in central Damascus.
"The people hurt are children from this area. I don't think people would try to kill their own children. So I think it was very clear who did this. It is unacceptable."
The ceasefire had been brokered by the international envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, who hoped to use it as a platform to engineer a broader peace deal.
Both sides were accused of violating the truce, which was always likely to be tested given the fragmented nature of the conflict. The most serious violations were reported in areas considered vital to the outcome of the war.
Rebels initiated an attack on a besieged government base near the town of Maraat al-Numan which came under full opposition control earlier this month. The town is located astride the main Aleppo-Damascus highway and opposition forces see control of it as vital to denying the government the ability to ferry reinforcements and supplies between Syria's two largest cities.
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