Fragile Cease-Fire Holds Despite Violations

The fragile cease-fire in Syria began to waver on Sunday, just one day after the U.S.-Russian truce agreement – the first of its kind in four years – went into effect.

Syrian government warplanes conducted air raids on Sunday on two villages in the north of the country, Turkey shelled Kurdish areas in the northeast and Russian jets resumed bombing raids after a 24-hour hiatus.

The opposition’s chief negotiating body, the High Negotiations Council (HNC), said Russia had carried out 26 bombing raids on areas where rebel groups were observing the truce, and accused Moscow of dropping cluster munitions on civilian areas, Reuters reports.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that airstrikes hit at least six towns and villages in west and north Aleppo and in the central Hama province.

Fighter jets believed to be Russian hit the town of Teir Maalah, just north of Homs city, several times on Sunday. Pro-government forces have tried to capture the strategic town to enter the province’s rebel-held northern countryside.

But despite the violations, HNC spokesman Salim al-Muslat remained positive.

“The decision is to remain quiet, not to do anything, and I believe they will stick to the truce,” he said. “Yesterday was the first day people can really go out and walk in the streets.”

Mustlat said the HNC was waiting for answers on how the temporary cessation of hostilities – initially set to last two weeks – was being monitored, particularly because there was no map to show the location of each group.

“This really worries us because we don’t know how to deal with any violations and what are the areas that should not be targeted,” he said.

Russia said Saturday it would suspend all flights over Syria for one day, but on Sunday airstrikes believed to be Russian were reported in Daret Azza and Jisr al-Shughour, two towns in Aleppo controlled by al-Nusra Front and other Islamist groups.

Airstrikes were also reported in Aleppo, as well as in Qabtan al-Jabal, Andan, Hreitan, Kfar Hamra and Ma’aret al-Arteek, areas controlled by the Free Syrian Army.

U.N. Plans to Expand Aid Deliveries

The United Nations will begin aid deliveries Monday with the hopes of reaching some 150,000 people in besieged areas across the country as the fragile cease-fire extends into its third day.

The deliveries are scheduled to head out between Monday and Friday, according to U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Syria Yacoub El Hillo, using the lull in fighting to deliver much-needed food, water and medicine to communities like Madaya, where residents have reportedly been starving to death.

“It is the best opportunity that the Syrian people have had over the last five years for lasting peace and stability,” he said.

The U.N. hopes to expand its delivery of aid over the next month to help an estimated 1.7 million people by the end of March.

Efforts last week to airdrop aid to civilians in the city of Deir Ezzor, which is besieged by the so-called Islamic State, failed when most of the 21 pallets failed to land on target or were severely damaged upon landing.

The U.N. said it has faced difficulty in delivering aid because it needs the approval of warring parties to cross battle lines.

“Primarily we will try to deliver food by land because that is the most efficient way, it’s the way that we can deliver the largest amounts of food but there are some areas of the country where we can’t get across the front line,” U.N. World Food Program spokesman Greg Barrow told the BBC.

Congress To Go after Assad for War Crimes

The U.S. Congress this week will discuss charging Bashar al-Assad and his government with war crimes.

The House Foreign Affairs panel is set to bring forward a resolution on March 2 calling on the Obama administration to push for the creation of a war crimes tribunal to investigate and prosecute violations “whether committed by the officials of the Government of Syria or other parties to the civil war,” Al-Monitor reports.

The move comes amid concerns that the Obama administration has caved in to Russian demands that Assad stay in power.

“There is the potential to move forward in a way that would push back the gains both made by [the Islamic State] and by the Assad regime, but that would require leadership,” said committee chairman Ed Royce.

“It would require cutting of material support for the Assad regime and increasing pressure on key players aligned with the regime and further isolating those involved in war crimes. How about making it clear that the hundreds of thousands of people who were killed by Assad because of chemical weapons and barrel bombs, that that constitutes war crimes? It takes that kind of leadership.”

Recommended Reads

• Medium: Aleppo Is Our Guernica – and Some Are Cheering on the Luftwaffe
• The World Post: The Terror Group That Could Ruin Syria’s Ceasefire Isn’t ISIS
• The New Yorker: A Truce in Syria
• Al-Jazeera: Syrian Ceasefire: Getting Aid to Desperate Civilians
• The Guardian: The Guardian View on the U.S. and Russia in Syria: Rivals Who Need Each Other
• The Economist: On Its Second Day Syria’s New Ceasefire Is Looking Wobbly
• The Daily Beast: The Mysterious Fate of the Dissident Italian Priest Snatched by ISIS

Top image: A Syrian man walks through a devastated part of the old city of Homs, Syria, Friday, Feb. 26, 2016. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)