Syrian army starts withdrawing from key highway in Aleppo

Air strikes and clashes tested a fragile ceasefire in Syria into Saturday as civilians waited for aid and tensions mounted between the deal’s brokers Russian Federation and the United States.

But one main highway stands in the way of delivering aid to rebel-held eastern Aleppo: Castello Road.

Since then, the violence, especially in Aleppo, has declined.

Earlier Friday, a barrage of rocket fire and shelling could be heard coming from the rebel-held east Damascus district of Jobar, an AFP correspondent said.

It aims to halt fighting between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and rebel factions, but does not include jihadists like ISIS. The U.N. has described the situation as “dire”.

They called for Washington to use their influence over the opposition fighters to get them to abide by the ceasefire.

Russian Federation has accused the United States of intentionally withholding the documents detailing the ceasefire from the security council.

The United States and Russian Federation have backed opposing sides in the Syrian war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, forced 11 million from their homes, and created the world’s worst refugee crisis since the World War Two.

Last week, the USA and Russian Federation announced a plan for a cessation of hostilities in Syria, which took effect on 12 September.

Moscow wants the U.N. Security Council to endorse the agreement when it meets next Wednesday, according to Ambassador Vitaly Churkin.

The U.N. said it would send its aid trucks into Syria only when it was confident that the ceasefire was being observed and that its workers were not in danger of attack.

The cease-fire is meant to help set the state for peace talks to end Syria’s civil war, now in its sixth year. Several previous negotiated cease-fires have unraveled and efforts to hold the peace talks have stalled.

Military Media, the media arm of Lebanon’s Shiite militant group Hezbollah, said demonstrators from the Shiite villages of Nubul and Zahraa in Aleppo province have started a march toward Castello road to demand that no aid be allowed into eastern Aleppo until aid is sent to two Shiite villages besieged by insurgents in the nearby province of Idlib.

He says that under the deal, opposition units were supposed to move away in lockstep but have failed to do so. He was ordered to quickly report the rebels’ violation of the deal to the USA military.

John Kerry, the U.S. secretary of state, conveyed the message to Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, in a phone call.

Gatilov’s remarks were reported on Thursday by the Interfax news agency.

The truce brokered by the US and Russian Federation began at sundown Monday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitor, said that while it had documented attacks by both sides, relative calm had persisted in most areas and it had not recorded any civilian deaths for a third consecutive day.

The monitoring group said at least half of those killed were women and children, adding that it was unclear who had carried out the raids.

Mayadeen is in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour, near the Iraqi border. SANA said the shelling violates the cease-fire, which went into effect Monday.

Syria’s military began withdrawing from a major artery to Aleppo late Thursday as the United Nations envoy accused President Bashar Assad’s government of obstructing aid access to the contested city.

The Syrian government has not provided needed “facilitation letters”, or permits, to allow for the start of the convoys, de Mistura said.

The Pentagon said dozens of US Special Operations Forces had been deployed to Syria’s border with Turkey to fight IS, at Ankara’s request, in support of the Turkish military and “vetted” Syrian rebels.