Syria Government Extends Cease-Fire in Aleppo as U.S. Pushes for Nationwide Truce

A fragile local cease-fire in the divided city of Aleppo was extended for the third time, for an additional 48 hours starting at 1 a.m. on Tuesday morning.

This came after the United States tried on Monday to move past the piecemeal approach by announcing that a lasting, nationwide truce would be restored.

The conflicting announcements came as world leaders gathered in Paris to revive faltering peace talks between warring parties that were derailed by a spike in violence last month.

There have been limited breaches of the most recent cease-fire in Aleppo since it went into effect five days ago.

On Monday, multiple air raids hit opposition-held areas north of the city as rebel shells fell on government-controlled areas in the city’s western half. Government air raids also targeted the town of Khan Touman, captured on Friday by a coalition of Islamist rebels, southwest of Aleppo.

Rebels also battled government forces east of Damascus as government warplanes hit the rebel-held Idlib city and Maarat al-Numan, both of which are located in Idlib province.

In Paris, the opposition is still looking to focus on three key issues: a national and lasting cease-fire, humanitarian access across the country, particularly within besieged areas, and a prisoner release.

Al-Qaida Chief Calls for Rebel Unity in Syria

The leader of al-Qaida released a statement over the weekend calling on rival jihadist factions across Syria to unite or risk death.

However, the statement labeled fellow Sunni Muslim militants fighting with the Islamic State group as “extremists.”

In an audio tape released on Sunday, his first in several months, Ayman al-Zawahiri called on rebels to join with al-Qaida’s Syria affiliate al-Nusra Front, which broke off an alliance with the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) in 2013.

“Syria today is the hope of the Islamic nation, for [its revolution] is the only Arab Spring revolution that is taking the correct path – the path of da’wa (preaching) and jihad for the sake of strengthening the sharia and enacting [its laws], and for the sake of striving to establish a righteous caliphate, not the caliphate of Ibrahim al-Badri (ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi),” he said.

“We have to want the unity of the mujahideen in Sham (Syria) so it will be liberated from the Russians and Western crusaders. My brothers… the matter of unity is a matter of life or death for you.”

According to Charles Lister, author of the book The Syrian Jihad, al-Qaida could be preparing to declare its own sovereign state in Syria after steadily gaining strength and support in the shadows of an international campaign against ISIS, Voice of America reported.

On the recording, Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s successor, attacked the U.N.-backed peace process and praised al-Nusra Front, one of the strongest rebel forces in the country.

Al-Nusra Front, which controls most of Idlib province and often fights side by side with western-backed, moderate rebel groups, is part of an alliance of Islamist factions known as Jaish al-Fatah and is currently spearheading battles against pro-government forces in the southern Aleppo countryside.

Deal Reached to End Hama Prison Riot

A tentative deal has been reached to end a riot in Hama’s central prison by nearly 800 political prisoner detainees. The deal would eventually lead to the pardon and release of prisoners held without charges, Reuters reports.

The deal, brokered late Sunday evening, would end a week-long riot that began when political detainees revolted after five inmates were to be transferred to Sednaya prison, a facility north of Damascus known as a hotbed for torture and political killings.

Sheikh Nawwaf al-Melhem, a leader of the government-tolerated opposition group called the People’s Party and prominent tribal leader in central Syria, told the BBC he had brokered an agreement between the state and inmates at the prison and that the facility’s power and water supplies had been restored.

Pro-government forces laid siege to the prison earlier in the week after inmates captured several guards, including the prison’s director.

The verbal deal was made after conditions inside the besieged prison deteriorated and inmates made appeals to the International Committee of the Red Cross after prison officials cut the facility’s electricity and water, and food shortages steadily worsened.

Recommended Reads

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• Reuters: Alleged Syrian Hacker Sympathetic to Damascus Headed to U.S.
• The Telegraph: How One Syrian Family Fled Their Home to Escape ISIS – and Why They Can’t Wait to Go Back
• Middle East Eye: EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Drone Strike in Syria Killed Mediator Trying to Rein in al-Qaida
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