The Assad regime forces and their allies have committed over 300 breaches since the truce went into force on December 29, 2016, a monitoring group has said. Scores of civilians have been killed in the breaches including women and children.
A report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) listed 318 violations of the truce, including 298 which took the form of combat operations and 20 arrests. Regime forces were responsible for at least 277 truce violations, 105 of which took place in Hama province, 46 in Aleppo, 40 in Idlib, 32 in Rural Damascus, 30 in Homs, 19 in Dara’a, 3 in Damascus and 1 in each of the provinces of Hasaka and Deir Ezzor.
The report did not list the truce violations in the areas under the control of the ISIS extremist group as these areas were excluded from the ceasefire agreement.
The FSA and rebel groups covered by the cease-fire agreement on January 2 announced they were suspending participation in the upcoming Astana meeting due to be held on January 23 in response to the violations committed by regime forces and the Iranian militias.
The Syrian Coalition condemned the continued breaches of the truce by the Assad regime and its allies, especially in the Wadi Barada valley. It called on the UN Security Council and guarantors of the ceasefire agreement to put an immediate end to these breaches and hold the perpetrators to account.
The SNHR report called upon Russia, as a guarantor of the agreement, to exert pressure on the Assad regime and its Iranian ally to commit to the terms of the agreement. It warned that the truce will inevitably collapse should these violations continue. It stressed that the continued breaches by the Russian forces undermine Russia’s credibility as a sponsor of any future agreement. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Office + Agencies)
