International News

BEIRUT, (APP/AFP): Regions of Syria covered by a UN-brokered
ceasefire Sunday enjoyed the “calmest day” since the truce started, a monitor said, as Moscow and Washington cautioned against any delay in resuming peace talks.
“Sunday was the calmest day since the ceasefire came into effect” on
February 27, Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights, told AFP.
He said the exceptions were dozens of rockets fired by Al-Nusra Front, a jihadist group excluded from the truce, and other rebel factions at Kurdish forces in the far north of the city of Aleppo.
The violence killed at least nine people, the Observatory said in an
updated toll, based on reports that it receives from a wide network of sources on the ground.
Heavy bombardment also struck territory held by Al-Nusra and the Islamic State group, another militant faction not covered by the truce.
Abdel Rahman said the average number of civilian deaths a day has fallen by 90 percent since the ceasefire came into force nine days ago, with an 80 percent decline among soldiers and rebel forces.
In Moscow, the defence ministry reported 15 ceasefire violations during the previous 24 hours, compared with nine on Saturday and 27 the day before.
Four people were wounded in shelling by unidentified forces of residential areas and loyalist positions in the Damascus area, it said.
UN envoy Staffan de Mistura has said that peace talks between rebels and the Syrian regime are to resume on March 10.