WORLD_ SYRIA_ Truce collapses in Syria town, villages

The Gulf Today

Truce collapses in Syria town, villages

August 16, 2015

DAMASCUS: Shelling resumed on Saturday in two government-held villages in northwestern Syria and a rebel town near Damascus, state media, rebels and a monitor said, as a ceasefire for the areas collapsed.

State television said a child and her father had been killed and 12 others wounded in “terrorist shelling” on the regime-held villages of Fuaa and Kafraya in Idlib province.

“Since this morning, at least 200 rockets have been fired at the Shiite villages of Fuaa and Kafraya,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Government forces and allies were meanwhile shelling rebel positions in opposition-held Zabadani, Abdel Rahman said.

The Observatory, a British-based monitor, said rebels had fired about 20 missiles at the two villages and also reported shelling on the rebel-held town of Zabadani.

Sources on both sides had said talks had been aimed at securing a withdrawal of rebel fighters from Zabadani and a withdrawal of citizens from the two villages.

Ahmed Qara Ali, spokesman for the Ahrar Al Sham insurgent group, said rebel groups had begun to escalate military operations after the collapse of negotiations between the warring sides brokered by Turkey and Iran.

Ahrar Al Sham had been leading the negotiations on behalf of the insurgents. There was no immediate word from Hizbollah, or the Syrian military.

Qara Ali said: “The reason it has collapsed is we wanted the release of 40,000 prisoners, and the Iranians rejected it.”

The negotiations reportedly stumbled over an opposition insistence that thousands of prisoners be released from government jails, according to Abdel Rahman.

Negotiations were continuing despite the ceasefire faltering.

“The talks are ongoing, but there are breaches in the ceasefire,” he said, citing sources close to the talks.

“It’s not clear if the breaches are attempts by the parties to improve the conditions of the deal or come from those who want to thwart the negotiations,” he said.

Elsewhere, state television said at least three people were killed and 14 injured by rebel rocket fire on a school in a government-held district of Aleppo city.

The Observatory put the toll at two dead, saying rebels had fired a barrage of several dozen rockets at multiple parts of the government-held west of the city.

A rebel fighter in Zabadani said army warplanes were flying over the town.

In Fuaa, a resident confirmed the bombardment.

“Today we’ve been hearing the sound of explosions since dawn,” the resident said.

“The truce failed and the attacks have resumed.” The truce agreement between rebel groups and pro-regime factions, including Lebanon’s Shiite militia Hizbollah, came into effect early Wednesday morning in the town of Zabadani near the Lebanese border and two Shiite villages of Kefraya and Al Fuaa in the northwestern province of Idlib.

Before its expiry on Saturday morning, intensive negotiations had been underway for an extension of the ceasefire and a full deal.

The talks centred on the withdrawal of rebels from Zabadani and the evacuation of civilians from Fuaa and Kefraya, which are the last two government-held villages in Idlib province. Zabadani has been the focus of a weeks-long offensive by Hizbollah and the army against insurgent groups holed up inside.

Insurgent groups had in turn launched a parallel attack on the two villages.

Agencies

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