Assad regime violates week-old truce over 250 times

ANKARA

The Bashar al-Assad regime has already violated the week-old U.S.-Russia brokered truce over 250 times, an opposition group charged Monday.

The Syrian Coalition of Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (SMDK) said in a written statement that the Assad regime had violated the truce 254 times in Syria’s 34 regions.

The group accused the regime of staging hundreds of attacks killing at least 19 civilians – 10 in Deraa, four each in Homs and Idlib, and one in Aleppo – and injuring dozens of others.

Last Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov agreed to a 48-hour extension of the weeklong cease-fire that came into effect on Monday.

Yet despite the deal, the Syrian coalition accuses the regime of blocking humanitarian aid from reaching civilians in dire need who are suffering due to the ongoing Syrian civil war.

Separately, on CNN Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry accused the Assad regime of blocking humanitarian aid from reaching the hardest-hit areas in Syria, despite previously agreeing to abide by the U.S.-Russia brokered cessation of hostilities.

UN humanitarian aid trucks have remained stalled for five days at the Turkish-Syrian border, with UN authorities accusing the Assad regime of not guaranteeing the drivers’ safety.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests – which erupted as part of the Arab Spring uprisings – with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, more than a quarter of a million people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced across the war-battered country, according to the UN.

The Syrian Center for Policy Research, however, put the death toll from the six-year conflict at more than 470,000 people.