AMMAN/BEIRUT: Mainstream Syrian rebel groups said on Sunday they would no longer abide by a threadbare “cessation of hostilities” deal unless the Syrian army ended a major assault on their positions in the suburbs of Damascus within 48 hours.
A statement by the Free Syrian Army (FSA) signed by nearly 40 rebel groups that operate across Syria said the cease-fire would be deemed to have “totally collapsed” if the large scale assault by Syrian government and allied Lebanese Hezbollah forces fighters, who seized an extensive area southeast of the capital on Thursday, did not cease within two days.
The rebel-held town of Daraya, located just a few kilometers from President Bashar Assad’s Damascus palace, was also pounded for the first time since the broader “cessation of hostilities” accord that took effect at the end of February.
The cease-fire has unraveled since the US and Russia brokered it, with fighting and bombardment in Aleppo playing a major part in its collapse.
Russian warplanes hit a key rebel supply route to Aleppo on Sunday in Moscow’s first strikes on Syria’s battleground second city since a February cease-fire, a monitoring group said.
Rebel official and monitors said Russian warplanes had carried out the attacks on the Castello road, which was still open but dangerous.
“The Russian and Syrian warplanes together carried out at least 40 air strikes on the Castello road,” Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
“They are the heaviest air strikes there since February, and they are also the first confirmed Russian strikes since the truce began,” Abdel Rahman said.
The violence wracking Aleppo city over the past month has killed some 300 civilians and left world powers scrambling to save the fragile truce brokered by the US and Russia nearly three months ago.
The city of Aleppo, about 50 km south of the Turkish border, is divided between the government and rebels fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The northern city, once Syria’s commercial powerhouse, is divided between rebel groups in the east and regime forces in the west.
The Castello road is a key supply route for rebels leading north out of Aleppo.
Even while the rest of the city witnessed relative calm in the first few weeks of the truce, fierce fighting has raged for the highway.
On Friday, Moscow proposed joint air strikes with Washington against militants in Syria from Wednesday, but its offer was spurned.
Russia has been carrying out air strikes in Syria since last September in support of its ally President Bashar Assad.
Washington launched its air war against the Daesh group and other militants in Syria in 2014.
Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said the US military does “not collaborate or coordinate with the Russians on any operations in Syria.”
US State Department spokesman John Kirby said nothing had been agreed with Moscow as its ally Damascus was responsible for the “vast majority” of violations of the February cease-fire.
Russia’s intervention has significantly strengthened the Syrian government in the five-year-old civil war that has killed more than 270,000 people and driven millions from their homes.
A statement by the Free Syrian Army (FSA) signed by nearly 40 rebel groups that operate across Syria said the cease-fire would be deemed to have “totally collapsed” if the large scale assault by Syrian government and allied Lebanese Hezbollah forces fighters, who seized an extensive area southeast of the capital on Thursday, did not cease within two days.
The rebel-held town of Daraya, located just a few kilometers from President Bashar Assad’s Damascus palace, was also pounded for the first time since the broader “cessation of hostilities” accord that took effect at the end of February.
The cease-fire has unraveled since the US and Russia brokered it, with fighting and bombardment in Aleppo playing a major part in its collapse.
Russian warplanes hit a key rebel supply route to Aleppo on Sunday in Moscow’s first strikes on Syria’s battleground second city since a February cease-fire, a monitoring group said.
Rebel official and monitors said Russian warplanes had carried out the attacks on the Castello road, which was still open but dangerous.
“The Russian and Syrian warplanes together carried out at least 40 air strikes on the Castello road,” Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
“They are the heaviest air strikes there since February, and they are also the first confirmed Russian strikes since the truce began,” Abdel Rahman said.
The violence wracking Aleppo city over the past month has killed some 300 civilians and left world powers scrambling to save the fragile truce brokered by the US and Russia nearly three months ago.
The city of Aleppo, about 50 km south of the Turkish border, is divided between the government and rebels fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The northern city, once Syria’s commercial powerhouse, is divided between rebel groups in the east and regime forces in the west.
The Castello road is a key supply route for rebels leading north out of Aleppo.
Even while the rest of the city witnessed relative calm in the first few weeks of the truce, fierce fighting has raged for the highway.
On Friday, Moscow proposed joint air strikes with Washington against militants in Syria from Wednesday, but its offer was spurned.
Russia has been carrying out air strikes in Syria since last September in support of its ally President Bashar Assad.
Washington launched its air war against the Daesh group and other militants in Syria in 2014.
Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said the US military does “not collaborate or coordinate with the Russians on any operations in Syria.”
US State Department spokesman John Kirby said nothing had been agreed with Moscow as its ally Damascus was responsible for the “vast majority” of violations of the February cease-fire.
Russia’s intervention has significantly strengthened the Syrian government in the five-year-old civil war that has killed more than 270,000 people and driven millions from their homes.
