Cease-fire brings relative quiet to Syria despite breaches
BEIRUT (AP) — A cease-fire brought relative quiet to parts of Syria for the first time in years on Saturday, offering civilians rare respite from Russian and Syrian government airstrikes despite some limited breaches of the agreement brokered by Washington and Moscow.
Fighting continued against the Islamic State group, which launched a surprise offensive on a northern town and carried out a suicide truck bombing in central Syria.
The cease-fire marks the most ambitious international attempt yet to reduce violence in the devastating conflict, which has killed more than 250,000 people, wounded a million and generated one of the worst refugee crises since World War II.
Syria's state-run news agency said militants fired several shells on residential areas in the capital in the first breach of the cease-fire around midday Saturday.
A coordination center at the Hemeimeem air base in Syria's coastal province of Latakia, where Russian warplanes are based, has 61 officers who negotiate with groups willing to join the cease-fire and coordinate the deliveries of humanitarian aid.
The IS-affiliated Aamaq news agency said IS claimed responsibility for the blasts in the area, where most residents belong to the Ismaili branch of Shiite Islam.
The Aamaq news agency reported that IS fighters launched a "surprise attack" on several areas in northern Raqqa province, where Tal Abyad is located.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group that monitors the conflict, said at least 70 militants and 20 Kurdish fighters were killed in the clashes.