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Local Syrian ceasefires break down as shelling resumes
[Hurriyet Daily News] A ceasefire in a Syrian town near the Lebanese border and in two villages to the north has broken down after renewed heavy shelling, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said on Aug. 29. The truce between the Syrian army and the Lebanese group Hezbollah on the one side, and Syrian turbans on the other, came into effect on Aug. 27 in the western town of Zabadani and the Shiite Moslem villages of Kefraya and al-Foua in the northwest. Local ceasefires in Syria's four-year conflict have tended to be fragile, and U.N. attempts to forge larger truces in other parts of the country, notably in the northern city of Aleppo, have come to nothing. The ceasefire in the three areas had been extended late on Aug. 28 but had collapsed by the morning, said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Britannia-based Observatory. Insurgents fired around 200 shells into areas in and around Kefraya and al-Foua early on Aug. 29, and Syrian warplanes carried out raids elsewhere in the province, he said. Sources on both sides said talks were continuing despite the ceasefire breach. The negotiations on the rebel side have been led by the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham ...a Syria jihadi group made up of Islamists and salafists, not that there's that much difference, formed into a brigade. They make up the main element of the Islamic Front but they don't profess adoration of al-Qaeda and they've been fighting (mainly for survival) against the Islamic State. Their leadership was wiped out at a single blow by a suicide kaboom at a crowded basement meeting in September, 2014... group. The sides had discussed evacuating the maimed from the three areas under the ceasefire but so far none have been transported out, the Observatory said. Zabadani has been at the center an offensive by Hezbollah and the Syrian army against hard boy groups. The area is important to the Syrian government because of its proximity to the capital Damascus and the Lebanese border. The two villages, in the province of Idlib, have been under attack by hard boys. The area borders ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... and is mostly rebel-controlled after advances against the military this year. Posted by: Fred 2015-08-30 |
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