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2016-09-13 Syria-Lebanon-Iran
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Pencilneck vows to retake Syria from 'terrorists'
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Syrian President Bashar Al Assad vowed on Monday that his government would take back land from "terrorists" and rebuild the country in remarks made just hours before the start of a cease-fire brokered by the US and Russia.
Assad spoke during a rare public appearance that included attending prayers for the Muslim holiday of Eid Al Adha in the Damascus suburb of Daraya, which had surrendered last month and reverted to government control after a four-year siege.
But in the build-up to the start of the truce at sunset, government forces and their allies bombed opposition areas in the country's north, while Al Qaeda-linked militants pushed on with an offensive in southern Syria.
In Geneva, the UN envoy for Syria said his office would monitor the start of the cease-fire "carefully, before making any hurried comments." Staffan de Mistura said in a text message to The Associated Press on Monday that no statement from his office about the truce was expected before the following afternoon.
The cease-fire deal, hammered out between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva on Saturday, was backed by Assad's government. But it has received mixed messages of commitment from various rebel factions.
It allows the Syrian government to continue to strike at Daesh and Al Qaeda-linked militants with the Jabhat Fatah Al Sham group, earlier known as the Nusra Front, until the US and Russia take over the task in one week's time.
Under the terms of the agreement, the rebels and the Syrian government are expected to stop attacking one another. Assad's key allies have also endorsed the deal.
But that scenario is complicated by the fact that Jabhat Fatah Al Sham remains intertwined with several other groups fighting on the ground.
One of the more immediate goals of the Kerry-Lavrov agreement is to allow the UN to establish aid corridors into Aleppo, the contested northern Syrian city. Over 2,000 people have been killed in fighting over the past 40 days in the city, including 700 civilians and 160 children, according to a Syrian human rights group.
On Saturday, presumed Russian or government airstrikes on rebel-held Idlib and Aleppo provinces killed over 90 civilians, including 13 children in an attack on a marketplace in Idlib, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
In the aftermath, rebels and opposition activists were asking on Sunday whether the government's side could be trusted. 
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Posted by Steve White 2016-09-13 00:00||
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File under: Govt of Syria
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