US talking to Russia about reducing fighting in Aleppo after agreeing ‘regime of calm’ deal in Latakia and Eastern Ghouta

Airstrikes on rebel-held areas of Aleppo and shelling of government-held areas of Syria’s largest city resumed after a brief lull on Friday as the US and Russia consulted to shore up a collapsing truce after a week of violence.

At least one child died and five people were injured in airstrikes on rebel areas, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported, while dozens of Syrian and international NGOs appealed to Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin to halt “atrocities happening on your watch”.



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The US said it was talking urgently to Russia about reducing fighting in the Aleppo area. It said it had agreed a separate “general recommitment” to the cessation of hostilities in Latakia and Eastern Ghouta area near Damascus, where there had been “persistent violations”. But this was not a new set of local ceasefires.

Russian state media said a “regime of calm” agreement sponsored by Moscow and Washington would apply for 24 hours in the capital and surrounding area and 72 hours in Latakia. The Syrian army said the partial truce went into effect at 1am on Saturday morning. The US asked Russia to include Aleppo but Russia declined, the AFP news agency reported.

The cessation of hostilities deal, brokered by the US and Russia, began in late February to allow peace talks to continue. But it has all but collapsed in the last few days, along with the UN’s Geneva negotiations after the opposition walked out. Humanitarian aid deliveries to the neediest besieged areas have been blocked.



The French charity Médecins Sans Frontières said on Friday that the death toll at Aleppo’s al-Quds hospital, hit by airstrikes, had risen to at least 50. Seventy-nine NGOs urged Obama and Putin to “immediately use their personal diplomatic engagement to save what remains of the cessation of hostilities agreement.”

Bishop Antoine Audo, president of the Catholic aid group Caritas Syria, said: “The cessation of hostilities gave people in Aleppo hope. They were able to breathe again, to walk in the park and to live again. However, in light of recent attacks, hope is fading fast. World leaders must urgently act to bring about an immediate end to attacks by all sides of the conflict.”



The UN human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, said violence was “soaring back to the levels we saw prior to the cessation of hostilities”. Reports of new military build-ups revealed a “monstrous disregard for civilian lives by all parties to the conflict,” he added.

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Few details were available about the US-Russian effort, but what was known appeared to reinforce worries that the two countries are too close for the comfort of the Syrian opposition and their European and Arab supporters, who fear that Putin, Bashar al-Assad’s loyal ally, is now calling the shots.

“The US is allowing Russia to claim some form of pat on the back when in reality it turns a blind eye to the devastation of Aleppo,” said one analyst. “It’s positive if there is a reduction in strikes, but the US really needs to put pressure on to keep the cessation of hostilities alive in Aleppo, where it’s currently being blown apart.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said airstrikes and government shelling had killed at least 131 civilians including 21 children in rebel areas in the past week. Rebel shelling of government areas had killed 71 civilians including 13 children.

The war in Syria, now in its sixth year, has killed 400,000 people, according to the UN envoy Staffan de Mistura. He said on Thursday that the ceasefire deal was “barely alive”. He has yet to name a date for the resumption of the Geneva talks.



The Syrian opposition coalition said massacres committed by the Assad regime and Russia in Aleppo represented a “coup de grace” for the truce.