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FIGHTING HAS SUBSIDED across much of Syria today as the first major ceasefire of the five-year war takes hold and an international task force prepares to begin monitoring the landmark truce.
Guns fell silent at midnight in suburbs around the capital and the bomb-scarred northern city of Aleppo after a day of intense Russian air strikes on rebel bastions.
State media said “terrorist groups” fired a number of shells at residential neighbourhoods in Damascus, but it did not report any casualties and appeared to play down the attack.
Rebels also accused the government of intermittent “truce violations” in parts of the country.
The nationwide cessation of hostilities, brokered by Washington and Moscow, is seen as a crucial but fragile step towards ending a war that has claimed 270,000 lives and displaced more than half the population.
It faces formidable challenges including the exclusion of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group and Al-Qaeda’s Syria affiliate Al-Nusra Front which control large parts of the country.
“Honestly, I was surprised that the calm lasted through the night,” said Ammar al-Rai, a 22-year-old medical student in Damascus.
I think this is the first time we’ve woken up without the sound of shelling.
United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura said peace talks would resume on 7 March if the truce holds and more aid is delivered – a key sticking point in negotiations.
The special task force is due to meet in Geneva today to oversee developments.
Its co-chairs Moscow and Washington have set up rival offices to monitor the truce along with a UN operations centre and would be first to deal with any infractions.
De Mistura said it was important that any incidents are “quickly brought under control” and a military response should be the “last resort”.
Russia, which has waged nearly five months of intense air strikes against rebels in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said it had halted bombing in all areas covered by the truce.
Moscow has vowed to keep striking IS, Al-Nusra and other “terrorist groups”, but said its warplanes would not fly any sorties over Syria on the first day of the ceasefire to avoid potential “mistakes”.
Visits to parks
Calm held throughout the night in Aleppo, Syria’s second city which has been almost encircled by pro-regime troops after a massive Russian-backed offensive that has caused tens of thousands to flee.
Residents said they were considering taking their children on a normally unthinkable visit to the park.
“I hope the truce continues even for a limited time so we can get back part of our old lives from before the war,” said Abu Nadim, who lives in Aleppo with his wife and four children.
In the flashpoint rebel town of Daraya, west of Damascus, the local council said there was no shelling this morning.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said it was also relatively quiet in the central provinces of Homs and Hama.
But fighting continued in areas where IS and Al-Nusra are present, including in the patchwork of territory in Aleppo province.
Twin suicide bombings killed six people outside the town of Salamiyeh in Hama province, where IS is present, state news agency SANA reported.
The jihadist group also launched an attack on Tal Abyad in Raqa province, clashing with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) there.
A US-led coalition targeted the town with air strikes in an attempt to push back IS, according to the Observatory.
Scepticism remains
The complexities of a conflict which escalated from anti-government protests into a full-blown war drawing in rival world powers make brokering a lasting halt to the fighting a huge challenge.
Assad has been bolstered by the support of Russia and Iran while the West, Turkey and Gulf states back rebel groups.
“I’m extremely sceptical about the chances of the ceasefire holding, in view of the entanglement of rebel groups branded terrorist by Russia and others who avoid this label,” said Francois Heisbourg, director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
Less than an hour before the ceasefire began, the UN Security Council gave its unanimous backing to the truce in a resolution drafted by the US and Russia.
Syria’s top opposition grouping, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), said Friday that 97 opposition factions had agreed “to respect a temporary truce”, but only for two weeks initially.
It said Damascus and its allies must stop attacking rebel forces “under the pretext of fighting terrorism”.
US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Washington had received assurances from Moscow that it would not bomb the “moderate opposition” after the truce.
“I don’t know how to put it any better than saying: ‘It’s put up or shut up time,’” he told reporters.
Iran has said it is confident the regime will abide by the agreement.
But rebels on the ground have been less optimistic, and Al-Nusra chief Mohammad al-Jolani urged regime opponents Friday to intensify attacks, saying: “Negotiations are the ones conducted on the battlefield.”
There is very little justification for entering into these public-private partnerships where the private company end up recouping their initial investment many times over within just a few years. They represent a poor deal for the State in terms of lost revenue. Surely borrowing the money would be more cost-effective?
@Sean: no brown envelopes that way
@Sean: Have a look at who’s invested in those private companies, that’s the reason right there. We’re being scammed.
@Sean: and have you evidence that they are recouping their investment ‘many times over’? The truth might surprise you.
@Aileen Lawlor: I’m not the one who made the claim. Let them produce the evidence.
All tolls charges should be scraped, we pay enough Taxes.
@Jimmy Pea: yes, let’s scrape those taxes.
Surely the revenue from the already paid for East link will cover a percentage of the proposed hike.
@The Bolt: Its been paid for many, many times over by now. That hike would be nice to get a ministers kids some PS5′s.
Every single penny of profit from tolls going into accounts setup and based in The Isle of Man as there would be absolute uproar if everyone was able to see the huge profits being made!
A classic case of the government upping prices with a flimsy excuse and without a backup plan for the public, forcing them to pay.
Clondalkin to Blanchardstown will take you 15-20 minutes by car on the M50, but well over an hour if you take public transport merely because there’s no direct route. Between 2 of the largest areas outside the M50 and 10k away from each other.
The toll bridges have been paid for many times over, and maintaining the roads isn’t going to be an arduous task with the heap of money currently being raked in.
“May”?? How about tell Eamonn Ryan to sort it out.
@Will Roche: he’d turn it into a bicycle lane
@Will Roche: Eamon told TII to do it
@Jonny Spuds: you’d be quicker getting from Bray to the Airport on the M50 on your bicycle most days…
There is no realistic and economic reason for an increase. Costs have not risen, there is no competition and they are already making huge profits. In fact the opposite should be the case, they should be handing money back to the government coffers
@BadBob: The contracts these PPP have is if the tolls don’t get a set amount of vehicles, passing through the government pay the PPP companies the difference.
But if the companies make a profit, the government doesn’t get a bean.
@BadBob: Are you living in the same country where prices are rising. I presume you mean none of the workers are getting paid any more since the last toll increase and on your planet, there is no construction/road maintenance inflation. I want to live where your fuel costs to move all this man and material does not exist. What world has competition for toll gate revenue- we already have different toll road operators. Maybe your world has no extra traffic congestion, car use and naturally road maintenance overheads. The cash for the eastlink already goes to DCC. The westlink funds pay the not insignificant ripoff price paid to take it public.
They don’t want to give with one hand and take with the other yet that’s what they have been doing for years so why stop now!
Why don’t the government call for fuel price reduction. Diesel in many areas €1.99 ltr yet I happened to get diesel at €1.80 ltr. Cost reduction not getting passed on and gouging by large forecourt operators going on
The result of the out-source-everything ideology of current parties in power. As with all other utilities, we are expected to pay for the cost of supply plus a hefty profit for one or other of the in crowd. When is the GE?
Only justification for M50 charge would be if they where actually building a secound level for more cars and a light rail system.
Can somebody in RTE please find the LLS interview in which Gay Byrne specifically asked (the week of the East Link Toll launch) how long we’d be paying. He was told that as soon as the cost of the bridge was paid (estimates suggested no more than ten years), the toll payment would be scrapped. That was a hell of a lot longer than ten years ago.
@Ernie Gallagher: Dublin City Council said they need the money so voted to retain the toll
Ye right.
Everyone who uses the road should pay, not just at a point you cross. If it goes to upgrading / maintaining the roads then put a 20c toll and relevant increase per vehicle, so at every bridge and capture all users, with a cap at the current price.
Ridiculous you only pay to use at a point. Get off before and drive around.
Can’t believe this government just keep hiking up prices and try to put a good face on it saying it’s. Ot the right time, like they are doing something positive by not letting hike happen just now.
Idiots.
@Rafa Condron: What the f. We have already paid for these roads and bridges you talk about. We are paying for their upkeep with every wage packet. This is about tolls from private companies making massive profits already and trying to make more…. Bull when they say it’s for increased upgrades, etc. That’s only a percentage of the money they make
We are all part of the rich man’s game of chess!! And we ain’t winning!
They’ll “call for them to be scrapped” and then they’ll say they tried when nobody listens
We are all part of the rich man’s chess game! And we ain’t winning!
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