AP, Beirut :
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke Wednesday with key players in the Syria conflict, including President Bashar Assad, ahead of a US-Russia-engineered cease-fire, as the opposition voiced concerns that the truce due to begin later this week will only benefit the Syrian government.
Government troops backed by Russian warplanes waged fierce battles to regain control of a strategic road southeast of Aleppo from the ISIS. The extremist group seized the town of Khanaser and surrounding hills on Tuesday, cutting the main land route to Aleppo.
The state-run news agency said 18 people were killed in ISIS shelling of government-held neighborhoods in the city over the past 24 hours.
A key element of the agreement on a “cessation of hostilities” is humanitarian access to besieged and hard-to-reach areas.
The United Nations announced the first high-altitude airdrop of 21 metric tons of aid Wednesday over Deir el-Zour, which is under siege from Islamic State extremists. But the World Food Program said later it faced “technical difficulties” and indicated the drop may have been off target.
The truce agreement, which is set to take effect at midnight Friday local time, does not cover the ISIS, Syria’s al-Qaida branch known as the Nusra Front, or any other militia designated as a terrorist group by the UN Security Council.
It’s not clear exactly where along Syria’s complicated front lines the fighting would stop and for how long – or where counterterrorism operations could continue. Also unresolved are how breaches in the truce would be dealt with.
It remains shaky at best and major questions over enforcement are still unresolved.
In a further reflection of the complicated terrain, Turkey’s president said Wednesday that a US-backed Syrian Kurdish militia group – which Turkey regards as a terror organization – should also be kept outside of the scope of the agreement. Turkey has in the past few weeks been shelling the group known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, in northern Syria.
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke Wednesday with key players in the Syria conflict, including President Bashar Assad, ahead of a US-Russia-engineered cease-fire, as the opposition voiced concerns that the truce due to begin later this week will only benefit the Syrian government.
Government troops backed by Russian warplanes waged fierce battles to regain control of a strategic road southeast of Aleppo from the ISIS. The extremist group seized the town of Khanaser and surrounding hills on Tuesday, cutting the main land route to Aleppo.
The state-run news agency said 18 people were killed in ISIS shelling of government-held neighborhoods in the city over the past 24 hours.
A key element of the agreement on a “cessation of hostilities” is humanitarian access to besieged and hard-to-reach areas.
The United Nations announced the first high-altitude airdrop of 21 metric tons of aid Wednesday over Deir el-Zour, which is under siege from Islamic State extremists. But the World Food Program said later it faced “technical difficulties” and indicated the drop may have been off target.
The truce agreement, which is set to take effect at midnight Friday local time, does not cover the ISIS, Syria’s al-Qaida branch known as the Nusra Front, or any other militia designated as a terrorist group by the UN Security Council.
It’s not clear exactly where along Syria’s complicated front lines the fighting would stop and for how long – or where counterterrorism operations could continue. Also unresolved are how breaches in the truce would be dealt with.
It remains shaky at best and major questions over enforcement are still unresolved.
In a further reflection of the complicated terrain, Turkey’s president said Wednesday that a US-backed Syrian Kurdish militia group – which Turkey regards as a terror organization – should also be kept outside of the scope of the agreement. Turkey has in the past few weeks been shelling the group known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, in northern Syria.
