Ceasefire holds in Idlib as small crowd holds anti-Assad protest

Record ID: 162964

  • Title: Ceasefire holds in Idlib as small crowd holds anti-Assad protest
  • Date: 2nd January 2017
  • Summary: WESTERN ALEPPO, SYRIA (DECEMBER 30, 2016) (VIDEO OBTAINED BY REUTERS) FREE SYRIAN ARMY (FSA) FIGHTER SEATED AMONGST RUBBLE AND SANDBAGS SMOKING CLOSE OF FSA FIGHTER SMOKING FSA FIGHTER SEATED AMONGST RUBBLE AND SANDBAGS FSA FIGHTER SEATED NEXT TO DIRT ROAD SMOKING (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) FREE SYRIAN ARMY (FSA) FIGHTER AHMAD ALKHALED SAYING: "As FSA, we are committed to this ceasefire to keep civilian people safe, but we are here in the frontline, ready in case the regime try to brake the ceasefire at any time. We think this ceasefire is a game but we are committed to it to keep the civilian souls safe." FSA SHELTER FSA FIGHTERS WALKING THROUGH MUDDY WET GROUND (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) FREE SYRIAN ARMY (FSA) CAPTAIN, AMIN, SAYING: "Most of the FSA brigades accept this deal and they were have a main condition: to include the eastern Ghouta , or the whole of it. Fatah Al Sham (Al Nusrah Front), 90 percent of its solders are the sons of our people, sons of the lands which they liberated with their blood. So it was necessary to keep the sons of our people from the fighters as we keep our civilian people." IDLIB, SYRIA (DECEMBER 30, 2016) (VIDEO OBTAINED BY REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ANTI-ASSAD DEMONSTRATORS CHANTING AND CLAPPING (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) DEMONSTRATOR AHMAD AL-SAYED SAYING: "The people have a susceptibility to the ceasefire. They want it to be able to live in peace but this ceasefire is not acceptable, it's insincere. This traitor army kills people, the regime sells Syria to Iran and Russia and bring the militias from all over to kill people." VARIOUS OF ANTI ASSAD PROTEST IN IDLIB MARKET IN IDLIB VARIOUS OF MARKET STALLS SELLING VEGETABLES AND FRUIT (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) IDLIB RESIDENT, ABO AHMAD SAYING: "The ceasefire is good. It's good for the people to get a break from the aircraft, the hit and kill. The people are tired. We want our God to realize this with a ceasefire or with anything. Anyone can enter. We don't have any problem because we want to finish this death and destruction that happened to us." MARKET IN IDLIB
  • Embargoed: 17th January 2017 11:37
  • Keywords: Idlib Syria ceasefire Aleppo protest
  • Location: WESTERN ALEPPO AND IDLIB, SYRIA
  • City: WESTERN ALEPPO AND IDLIB, SYRIA
  • Country: Syria
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace
  • Reuters ID: LVA0015F2SI13
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A Russian- and Turkish-backed ceasefire that aims to end nearly six years of war in Syria and lead to peace talks appeared to hold on Friday (December 30) in Idlib and western Aleppo province since it took effect at midnight.
    Russian President Vladimir Putin, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, announced the ceasefire on Thursday (December 29) after forging the agreement with Turkey, a longtime backer of the opposition.
    Monitors and a rebel official reported clashes almost immediately after midnight (2200 GMT Thursday) between insurgents and government forces along the provincial boundary between Idlib and Hama, and isolated incidents of gunfire further south.
    Calm still prevailed in many areas included in the deal, the Observatory and rebel officials said, but the fighting highlighted the fragility of any truce agreement in a country where repeated international efforts towards peace have failed.
    A number of rebel groups have signed the agreement, Russia's Defence Ministry said. Several rebel officials acknowledged the deal, and a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army (FSA), a loose alliance of insurgent groups, said it would abide by the truce.
    One FSA fighter said the truce deal was necessary for the safety of the civilians.
    Syria's civil war, which began when a peaceful uprising descended into violence in 2011, has resulted in more than 300,000 deaths and displaced more than 11 million people, half its pre-war population.
    The ceasefire, in the waning days of U.S. President Barack Obama's administration, was the first major international diplomatic initiative in the Middle East in decades not to involve the United States.
    Others were not so optimistic.
    In rebel-held Idlib, a small crowd of anti-Assad demonstrators took to the streets in protest.
    The previous two Syria ceasefires, brokered by Cold War foes Washington and Moscow, took effect in February and September but both collapsed within weeks as warring sides accused each other of truce violations and fighting intensified.
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