Syrian army declares nationwide three-day truce over Eid

The announcement comes as Bashar Al Assad travels to Syria’s third largest city, Homs, which was recaptured from rebels earlier this year.

Syrian children walk amid destruction on the outskirts of Damascus ahead of the Eid Al Fitr holiday. Amer Al Mohibany / AFP

BEIRUT // The Syrian military declared a three-day cease-fire for the entire country on Wednesday coinciding with the start of Eid Al Fitr holidays.

US Secretary of State John Kerry welcomed the declaration, saying discussions were underway with Russia and other parties to expand it. Mr Kerry appealed to all parties to honour it to allow for some respite in the country’s continuing bloodshed.

“We are trying very hard to grow these current discussions in a longer-lasting, real, enforceable, cessation of hostilities,” Mr Kerry said during a visit to Tbilisi, Georgia. “We hope that the 72 hours could perhaps be a harbinger of possibilities to come,”

There were some reports of sporadic violence after the ceasefire, which is set to expire at midnight on Friday.

One rebel group said government forces and allied fighters moved in on a strategic town held by a powerful rebel group in Damascus suburbs. Seizing Madya, a town north of the capital in the rebel-held eastern Ghouta could potentially sever one of their main supply routes.

Another US-backed group, the New Syrian Army, which focuses on battling ISIL in the country’s east, said it is observing no truce.

“With Daesh, there is no such thing as cease-fire,” said Mozahem Al Saloum, spokesman for the New Syrian Army. The group does not fight President Bashar Assad’s troops.

Wednesday’s announcement is the first time Syrian authorities have declared a blanket truce for the entire country. The last truce – a high-profile “cessation of hostilities” brokered by the United States and Russia – was declared on February 27 and excluded militant groups such as ISIL and Al Qaeda’s branch in Syria, Jabhat Al Nusra.

For weeks, it sharply reduced violence in much of the country. However, the exclusion of areas under the militants’ control opened the door for disagreements over who else was considered a terrorist group and would therefore be excluded from the cease-fire. The government of Bashar Al Assad considers all armed opposition to be terrorists.

The February cease-fire finally collapsed with a government offensive in the northern province of Aleppo, where a coalition of opposition groups has strongholds and also co-operates with the Jabhat Al Nusra.

On the first day of Eid, Mr Al Assad travelled to Syria’s third largest city, Homs, for the holiday morning prayers.

State TV showed him praying in a Homs neighbourhood that has been the scene of many car bombs over the years. Since nearly all of Homs’ neighbourhoods fell under government control earlier this year, the city has been mostly calm. Mr Al Assad had recently travelled to the front line in eastern Damascus, another attempt to project confidence amid his troops’ new territorial gains achieved with Russia’s military and air support.

In the violence on Wednesday, Jaish Al Islam, or the Army of Islam, a powerful armed rebel group that is in control of areas in Damascus suburbs, said clashes with pro-government forces have not let up.

Yasser Al Tayeb, a spokesman for the group, said pro-government forces were pressing on with their ground offensive on Mayda, in the eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus, which they launched on Tuesday. He said they have also continued the bombardment of the besieged suburb of Douma.

On Tuesday, the state-run news agency Sana said Syrian forces were in control of large sections of the town, making it a “launching point” to expand operations in the area.

The government had blamed Jaish Al Islam for last Friday’s killing of a Syrian air force pilot whose plane had crashed in the eastern Damascus suburbs, and vowed to punish the group. Jaish Al Islam blamed Al Qaeda’s branch for killing the pilot.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said pro-government militias, including the Lebanese Hizbollah group, have all but seized control of Mayda, an important supply route for the rebel-held suburbs.

In northern Aleppo, a province hotly contested between the government and an array of insurgent groups, activists reported reciprocal violence. Two children were killed when insurgent groups lobbed missiles into Al Zahraa, a predominantly Shiite town in the north.

*Agence France-Presse