Syrian army declares temporary, nationwide truce

The Syrian army said Wednesday it was observing a 72-hour ceasefire across the country coinciding with the festival marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. State television broadcast footage of Assad joining worshippers at al-Safa mosque.

“The ceasefire is to be implemented in all territories across the Arab Republic of Syria for a 72-hour period starting from 1 a.m. July 6 until midnight of July 8”, Syria’s regime-run SANA news agency quoted the army’s general command as saying.

Despite the announcement of the truce, the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that clashes had continued into Wednesday, with the Syrian government close to capturing the city of Madaya, which Assad’s forces have held under siege for months.

There was no indication the ceasefire had been agreed with any of the groups opposing the government.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, on an official to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally Georgia, said that “we very much welcome” the Syrian declaration of a truce across the country and said Washington hoped that all parties would adhere to it.

The truce is the first to be declared country-wide since the one brokered by foreign powers in February to facilitate talks to end the five-year-old civil war. It said pro-government forces have also kept up their bombardment of the besieged suburb of Douma.

On the first day of Eid, Mr Al Assad travelled to Syria’s third largest city, Homs, for the holiday morning prayers. The Assad government considers all armed opposition to be terrorists.

Elsewhere in Syria, insurgents launched rockets into al-Zahraa, a mainly Shiite town in the northern Aleppo province, killing two children, the Observatory said.

Airstrikes were also reported against al-Qaeda-held Jaish al-Shughur, in Idlib Province.

Previous cease-fires have not applied to UN-designated terrorist groups such as Islamic State, and fighting continued Wednesday between IS militants and government troops in Homs and Hama, Abdurrahman said.

Rebel forces fired back at regime-held areas of the city with mortars, the monitor said.