Car bomb kills 2 after Syria cease-fire begins

“The only thing that is required is for people to take their fingers off the trigger”.

Rebels reported what they described as occasional government violations, and one commander warned that unchecked, the breaches could lead to the agreement’s collapse.

United Nations official Staffan de Mistura said: “This will remain a complicated, painstaking process”.

A special taskforce chaired by the United States and Russian Federation will later meet in Geneva to monitor violations of the agreement.

But Russia has always claimed it is only targeting terrorists since it started air strikes in September a year ago but there have been numerous reports that they are attacking non-Islamist and moderate rebel factions as well.

Putin stressed that combat actions against Islamic State, the Nusra Front and other groups which the Syrian government regards as terrorists would continue. Golani used a derogatory term to refer to Shiite Muslims.

U.N.-sponsored peace talks are expected to begin again March 7, with the hope to find a more concrete cease-fire solution.

The resolution also demanded the implementation of a previous council resolution on Syria adopted on December 18, 2015, which called for an end to attacks on civilians and infrastructure as well as a political settlement of the crisis.

But rebel groups on the ground have been less optimistic, and Al-Nusra’s chief Mohammad al-Jolani on Friday urged regime opponents to intensify their attacks. The fighting began after midnight Friday and was still ongoing, Sillo said.

The elusive cease-fire deal was reached only after a monthslong Russian air campaign that the US says strengthened Assad’s hand and allowed his forces to retake territory, altering the balance of power in the Syrian civil war. It was the first time the Syrian government has accused rebel groups breaching the cease-fire agreement. It added that it has formed a military committee to follow up on the truce.

The Syrian government has agreed to the cessation plan. On February 24, Putin made calls to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Saudi King Salman, all the while receiving a commitment form Bashar al-Assad that he would indeed respect the cease-fire.

Rudskoi said that 17 opposition units have contacted the Russian military to adhere to the truce that became effective at midnight local time.

“We are seriously concerned over the future of the ceasefire because of the continuing Russian air raids and ground attacks by forces of Assad”, presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told reporters in Ankara. The group said in an online statement that one of its fighters had driven a auto loaded with explosives to a Syrian army gathering in the area and blown himself up among them, killing 20 people and wounding 35 others.

Washington has supported the YPG in the fight against Islamic State in Syria.

“Initial, isolated reports of gunfire and shelling indicated a level of violence far below what has become normal in Syria”.

Analysts have also questioned whether the agreement can be effective given that it does not include Daesh or Al Nusra Front.

Peskov says this wasn’t “the first time this observation group has published unconfirmed information that isn’t backed up by facts”.

The ceasefire, brokered by the United States and Russian Federation, which back opposing sides in the war, does not apply to the Daesh group or Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front.

On Friday afternoon, just hours ahead of the commencement of the ceasefire, almost 90 rebel groups in Syria said they will be committed to the truce, the US officials said.

The five days of fighting in the Khanaser has killed 61 troops and pro-government fighters and 91 IS militants, according to the Observatory.

Fighting raged across much of western Syria right up until the “cessation of hostilities” came into effect but there was calm in many parts of the country shortly after midnight, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

It would then go into effect 12 hours later.