Istanbul (CNN) Sporadic clashes and airstrikes on Friday marred war-ravaged Syria's first day of a nationwide ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey, according to rights activists.

The country's military said it halted operations at midnight, except against ISIS and other terror groups, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported.

The director of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdulrahman, told CNN that at least 10 people were killed Friday.

He said a sniper killed one person in Eastern Ghouta, an eastern Damascus suburb, and and nine people died in airstrikes in the town of Tadaf, located southeast of Bab city in the northeastern suburbs of Aleppo. Four children were among the dead in Tadaf.

Abdulrahman told CNN the death toll is expected to rise as many remain in critical condition. The SOHR could not confirm whether the warplanes were Russian or Turkish.

The SOHR said regime forces faced strong resistance from Islamic militants near the Damascus suburb of Wadi Barada.

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More than 20 airstrikes were reported near Wadi Barada since Friday morning as militants repelled regime forces trying to advance on the suburb, activist Abu Mohammad al-Bardawi in Wadi Barada told CNN. The area is home to a major water spring that supplies Damascus.

CNN could not independently verify the reports of renewed violence on Friday.

SOHR also said government warplanes conducted more than a dozen strikes in northern Hama province Friday, which houses pockets of ISIS militants.

Additionally, activists in the city of Douma, about 6 miles from Damascus, reported shelling by regime forces.

No violence reported by Syrian, Russian media

Neither SANA nor Russian state media has reported episodes of violence Friday morning.

"I heard no skirmishes or shelling over the last 12 hours," Ahmad Khabir, a resident of Idlib told CNN.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, speaking after Friday prayers in the capital of Ankara, said he hoped the ceasefire leads to "a sustainable peace that would prevent further bloodshed and the killing of civilians, innocents and children."

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the agreement in which the Syrian government and opposition rebels would cease fighting in the country's long-running civil war . Putin described the agreement as "very fragile" and said it demanded "special attention and patience."

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The brutal civil war has raged on for nearly six years and killed an estimated 400,000 people

Peace talks scheduled in Kazakhstan

Putin said the two sides agreed to enter peace talks to end the conflict, according to the Russian state-run TASS news agency. Three documents had been signed, Putin said: the ceasefire agreement, a package of measures to oversee the ceasefire and a declaration of readiness to enter into peace talks.

Those peace talks are to be held in Astana, Kazakhstan, in what Putin and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad described as "an important step for a final solution of the crisis," according to a statement by the Kremlin.

Putin and Assad had discussed the agreement by phone Thursday, with the Syrian President saying he would comply with the ceasefire, according to the Kremlin statement.

Turkey and Russia are guarantors to the agreement.

But groups considered as terror organizations by the UN Security Council, such as ISIS, are excluded from the agreement, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

The upper hand

The latest effort comes after previous ceasefire attempts by the international community crumbled.

A fighter from the Syrian Democratic Forces advancing on an ISIS position near Raqqa, Syria.

It also follows several ceasefire agreements brokered by Turkey and Russia in the city of Aleppo this month. Most were broken, but one held long enough to allow the evacuations of tens of thousands of rebels and civilians from eastern Aleppo.

Eastern Aleppo had been under rebel control for four years and had been choked off by the Syrian regime , leading to shortages of food and supplies for civilians.

The Syrian regime then gained full control of Aleppo, a major turning point that has limited the opposition's military and political options.

"We've had these rebel reverses, the loss of Aleppo -- a victory by the Syrian regime," said CNN military analyst Lt. Col. Rick Francona.

"So I think that the rebels are looking at this as maybe their last chance, and they may actually want this ceasefire to work. ... But their hand is really weak right now."

Will ceasefire hold?

A successful nationwide ceasefire hinges on many fighting factions laying down arms. Groups from Iraq, Iran and Lebanon are also fighting alongside the forces of Assad.

The legal adviser for the Turkish-backed rebel Free Syrian Army, Osama Abu Zeid, called the agreement "a complete truce with no exceptions or preconditions" that included "all areas and military factions in Syrian opposition territory."

"The main goal is improving the living conditions for Syrian citizens," he said.

"Our message to the Syrian population (is) that our fingers will remain on the trigger, and we will present all sacrifices and we will take every path that will alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people."

Photos: The battle for Aleppo in 20 photos A Syrian man reacts while standing on the rubble of his house while others look for survivors and bodies in the Tariq al-Bab district of the northern city of Aleppo on February 23, 2013. Hide Caption 1 of 20 Photos: The battle for Aleppo in 20 photos A Free Syrian Army fighter aims his weapon during clashes with government forces in Aleppo on Tuesday, January 15, 2013. Hide Caption 2 of 20 Photos: The battle for Aleppo in 20 photos A member of the Syrian pro-government forces stands amid heavily damaged buildings in Aleppo's 1070 district on November 8, 2016, after troops seized it from rebel fighters. Hide Caption 3 of 20 Photos: The battle for Aleppo in 20 photos A wounded Syrian boy cries after bombs fell on the opposition-controlled Firdevs neighborhood in Aleppo on October 11, 2016. Hide Caption 4 of 20 Photos: The battle for Aleppo in 20 photos Smoke rises after a bomb explodes in a residential area in the Darat Izza neighborhood of Aleppo on October 4, 2016. Hide Caption 5 of 20 Photos: The battle for Aleppo in 20 photos Search and rescue team members carry an injured man after Syrian regime airstrikes targeted the Meshed neighborhood of Aleppo on July 21, 2016. Hide Caption 6 of 20 Photos: The battle for Aleppo in 20 photos A rebel fighter aims his weapon toward Syrian government forces' positions at the Menagh military airport near Aleppo on March 13, 2013. Hide Caption 7 of 20 Photos: The battle for Aleppo in 20 photos The body of a Syrian army soldier lies on the ground after heavy clashes with government forces at a military academy besieged by the rebels in Tal Sheer village, north of Aleppo, on December 16, 2012. Hide Caption 8 of 20 Photos: The battle for Aleppo in 20 photos Debris covers a street and flames rise from a building after a reported airstrike by Syrian government forces on March 7, 2014, during the Friday prayer in the Sukkari neighborhood of Aleppo. Hide Caption 9 of 20 Photos: The battle for Aleppo in 20 photos Wounded 5-year-old Omran Daqneesh sits alone in the back of an ambulance after he was injured during a Russian or Assad regime forces airstrike targeting the Qaterji neighborhood of Aleppo on August 17, 2016. Hide Caption 10 of 20 Photos: The battle for Aleppo in 20 photos A Syrian opposition tank fires a rocket toward an Assad forces' building during clashes near the Air Intelligence building of Jamiat al-Zahra, Aleppo, on April 13, 2015. Hide Caption 11 of 20 Photos: The battle for Aleppo in 20 photos On September 7, 2012, Free Syrian Army fighters run after attacking a Syrian army tank during fighting in the Izaa district of Aleppo. Hide Caption 12 of 20 Photos: The battle for Aleppo in 20 photos Search and rescue team members inspect collapsed buildings after Assad regime forces attacked residential areas in the Karm al-Beik region of Aleppo on July 9, 2015. Hide Caption 13 of 20 Photos: The battle for Aleppo in 20 photos Syrian civil defense volunteers and rescuers remove a baby from under the rubble of a destroyed building after a reported airstrike on the rebel-held neighborhood of al-Kalasa in Aleppo on April 28, 2016. Hide Caption 14 of 20 Photos: The battle for Aleppo in 20 photos A Free Syrian Army fighter takes cover during clashes with Syrian army soldiers in the Salaheddine neighborhood of central Aleppo on August 7, 2012. Hide Caption 15 of 20 Photos: The battle for Aleppo in 20 photos Syrian pro-government forces walk in the damaged ancient Umayyad Mosque in the old city of Aleppo on December 13, 2016, after they captured the area. Hide Caption 16 of 20 Photos: The battle for Aleppo in 20 photos A man in front of a field hospital mourns the death of his relatives on August 21, 2012, in Aleppo. Hide Caption 17 of 20 Photos: The battle for Aleppo in 20 photos Rubble is seen in the Salaheddine neighborhood on March 24, 2013, in Aleppo. Hide Caption 18 of 20 Photos: The battle for Aleppo in 20 photos Syrian government forces walk in the strategic area of the Bazo hilltop, on the southern outskirts of Aleppo, as they advance to seize the rebel-held eastern part of the city on October 25, 2016. Hide Caption 19 of 20 Photos: The battle for Aleppo in 20 photos An aerial view shows a convoy of buses and ambulances waiting at a crossing point in the Amiriyah district of Aleppo on December 15, 2016, to evacuate civilians trying to flee from areas under siege by Iran-led Shiite militias and Assad regime forces. Hide Caption 20 of 20

Not all opposition groups have signed the latest ceasefire, though. The Syrian rebel group Ahrar al-Sham is one of them.

"Ahrar al-Sham has a number of reservations over the proposed agreement and the negotiations," spokesman Ahmad Qura Ali said on Twitter. "We will make clear our reservations in due course."

Where is the US?

Turkey and Russia appear to be sidelining the United States and driving what had been a UN-led political process.

Throughout the Syrian war, the UN Security Council has been widely criticized for failing to find a solution. Russia has played a role in that, as it used its veto power to reject several resolutions on the conflict.

A spokesperson for UN Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura welcomed the ceasefire in a statement.

US State Department spokesman Mark Toner acknowledged that Washington was not part of the negotiations but said the agreement was "a positive development."

The US has led an international coalition to fight ISIS in Syria and has vehemently opposed any attempt to keep Assad in power.

Although Russia and Turkey brokered the agreement, the two countries have differed in their stance on Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for four decades.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last month that Turkish forces entered Syria to help end Assad's rule. Meanwhile, Russia is Assad's most powerful ally and has propped up his regime since September 2015 with airstrikes.

Putin said Russia would begin scaling back its military presence in Syria, though it would continue to support the "legitimate Syrian government in its struggle with terrorism."

The Syrian regime has frequently referred to opposition fighters as "terrorists," long before ISIS gained a foothold in the country.