U.S. Announces Renewed Truce for Aleppo

A renewed cease-fire arranged by the United States and Russia went into effect early Wednesday morning in and around the northern city of Aleppo, U.S. officials said.

Nearly 300 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in two weeks of heavy fighting in Aleppo.

The U.S. State Department said the truce went into effect at 1:01 a.m. Damascus time on Wednesday, but acknowledged that there were reports of continued fighting in certain areas.

The Syrian military confirmed the truce, but said it wouldn’t take effect until Thursday and would only last for 48 hours. U.S. officials told the Associated Press they were looking into the discrepancy.

There was no immediate confirmation from Moscow, Bashar al-Assad’s chief backer. A spokesperson for the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that earlier attempts at a temporary truce had failed because of ongoing attacks on government-held areas of the divided city by al-Nusra Front, al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria.

The details and the length of the partial truce – and whether it imposed new conditions on the Assad government, the rebels or their international backers – remained unclear.

“We look to Russia … to press for the Assad regime’s compliance with this effort, and the United States will do its part with the opposition,” U.S. secretary of state John Kerry said on Wednesday.

The opposition said it was “impractical to speak of only local cease-fires” and that a truce “must apply to all of Syria, without exception,” according to Salem al-Meslet, a spokesperson for the High Negotiations Committee (HNC).

Meslet said the HNC remained committed to finding a political solution to Syria’s war, “but in order for a political track to work, there must be an improvement in humanitarian aid access and a cessation of hostilities in all areas.”

“It is up to the international community to develop a mechanism to monitor and enforce the cessation, as well as respond to breaches.”

22 Airstrikes Hit Eastern Ghouta as ‘Freeze’ in Fighting Ends

Rebel-held areas of Damascus were hit by at least 22 airstrikes on Wednesday after a local agreement aimed at halting the fighting expired at midnight, Agence France-Presse reports.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human rights reported ground fighting around the town of Deir al-Asafir in the opposition stronghold of Eastern Ghouta, a strip of countryside towns and villages east of Damascus that are surrounded by pro-government forces.

The Syria Civil Defense rescue service said in a statement that the area had been targeted by 21 raids and simultaneous mortar fire, according to Reuters.

The U.S. and Russia reached a deal last week on a temporary “freeze” in fighting in Eastern Ghouta and in the coastal province of Latakia, a “regime of silence” that was meant to reinforce a broader, country-wide truce brokered by the two world powers in February.

The freeze in fighting was initially set to last 24 hours in Eastern Ghouta, but was extended twice, according to the Syrian military, until it finally was allowed to expire on Tuesday night.

Turkey ‘Ready’ to Send Ground Forces into Syria to Battle ISIS

Turkey is ready to deploy ground forces into Syria to battle the so-called Islamic State group (ISIS) militants if need be, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said, as another two rockets fired by the group hit a border town.

In an interview with Al Jazeera earlier this week, Davutoglu said the United Nations resolutions had given Turkey “legitimacy” to enter Syria to fight ISIS and other groups in the name of self-defense.

“If ground troops become vital, we would send them. We are ready to take all measures inside and outside Turkey to defend ourselves,” he said.

His comments came just hours before another two rockets fired by ISIS hit the Turkish border city of Kilis, where 19 people have been killed this year in repeated artillery attacks. No one was hurt in Wednesday’s strikes, during which two artillery shells hit an empty field near the city center.

“Recently our town of Kilis has been persistently hit by harassing fire, many of our citizens have lost their lives. Every attack has been responded to and will continue to be,” said Turkish president Recep Erdogan on Wednesday.

“Daesh has suffered its greatest casualties in operations it undertook against Kilis. If it continues, it will see greater losses,” he said using an Arabic acronym to refer to ISIS.

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