Mahmoud Barakat
13 September 2016•Update: 17 September 2016
ALEPPO, Syria
Thirty-four people were killed in airstrikes carried out by Russian and Syrian regime warplanes in Syria on the first day of the Muslim Eid al-Adha festival on Monday, a U.K.-based rights group has said.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said it documented the deaths of 15 people in Rif Dimashq province, 14 in Idlib, two each in Homs and Daraa and one in Aleppo.
The NGO said that the attacks took place in opposition-held areas.
Meanwhile, Arif Ali, a civil defense official, told Anadolu Agency that Russian and regime warplanes kept bombarding opposition-controlled areas in the western Idlib city and its surroundings until shortly before a cease-fire deal came into effect.
On Monday, the Syrian regime announced the start of the U.S.-Russia-brokered cease-fire across the war-torn country.
The official SANA news agency said the truce began 7.00 p.m. local time (1600GMT) Monday and would continue until 11.59 p.m. local time (2059GMT) on Sept. 18.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry dubbed the deal a “turning point” and said it could mark a move “towards a negotiated peace and a political transition in Syria”.
The cease-fire applies to all armed groups in Syria apart from Daesh and the Nusra Front, which recently changed its name to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.
Syria has suffered unspeakable losses over the last five years since Bashar al-Assad's government violently suppressed a peaceful protest against his rule, unleashing a downward spiral of violence that killed hundreds of thousands of victims and displaced millions.
