Syria conflict: Temporary truce comes into effect

The first major temporary truce in Syria's five-year civil war has come into effect. The "cessation of hostilities" began at midnight (22:00 GMT Friday) with early reports saying front lines were silent.

Syrian rebel positions around Damascus were heavily bombarded on Friday

 UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said fighting had "calmed down" but one breach was being investigated. In the run-up to the deadline, US President Barack Obama warned the Syrian government and its ally Russia "the world will be watching".

The truce involves government and rebel forces, but not the so-called Islamic State group or the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front. More than 250,000 Syrians have been killed in Syria's civil war and millions more have been forced from their homes.


A few hours after the deadline passed, a car bomb killed two people outside the government-held town of Salamiyeh, near Hama, Syrian state media reported. It is not clear who carried out the attack.

The temporary halt in fighting appeared to be holding on Saturday morning, said the BBC's Mark Lowen, who is in the Turkish town of Gaziantep near the Syrian border.

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Monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said while some gunfire was heard in the northern city of Aleppo as the deadline passed, elsewhere it was quiet. Mr de Mistura has said that peace talks will resume on 7 March if the truce "largely holds", adding that he had no doubt there would be "no shortage of attempts to undermine this process".

Russia said it would continue to bomb militant targets. Russian jets were reported to have intensified attacks on Syrian rebel positions on Friday. In the run-up to the truce, heavy attacks around Damascus and Aleppo were blamed on Russian airstrikes, but denied by Moscow.