Syria ceasefire mostly holding, US should do more: Russia

MOSCOW: The ceasefire in Syria is broadly holding but the United States should be doing more to support it, Russia’s Defence Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

The ministry said Russian monitors had registered no violations of the ceasefire involving the use of heavy weapons within the last 24 hours.

"On the whole the ceasefire regime between government troops and opposition forces on the territory of Syria is being observed," the statement said.

But it said that, within the last 24 hours, opposition fighters in the Homs region had opened fire on government posts, killing one soldier.

The ceasefire took effect three weeks ago, reducing violence but not halting the fighting as peace talks take place in Geneva. It does not al-Qaeda or Islamic State militants.

Russia has been pulling out its attack aircraft after announcing a partial withdrawal from Syria, where its air campaign in support of President Bashar al-Assad has turned fighting in his favour. The Russian statement criticised the United States for what is said was Washington’s failure to restrain rebel fighters. "In contrast to the American side, officers of the Russian monitoring Centre are in the provinces and on the ground to restrain potential violations of the ceasefire," it said.

Russia had yet to receive a reply from Washington to its proposals for organising monitoring of the ceasefire, it added.

"We consider that this delay in accepting the document in question is unacceptable, because it leads to new civilian casualties," the statement said.

Meanwhile, dozens of people were killed in a series of air strikes on the city of Raqqa in northern Syria on Saturday, a monitoring group and activists said, as Damascus and Moscow waged attacks on areas controlled by Islamic State.

A cessation of hostilities in Syria took effect three weeks ago, reducing violence but not halting the fighting as peace talks take place in Geneva.

The deal does not include al Qaeda or Islamic State militants, whose de facto capital in Syria is Raqqa.

Russia has been pulling out its attack aircraft after announcing a partial withdrawal from Syria, where its air campaign in support of President Bashar al-Assad has turned fighting in his favour.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that at least 39 people had been killed and dozens more wounded in the raids on Raqqa.

An activist group with sources in Raqqa, called Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, said more than 40 had been killed, and that separate strikes hit areas in the north of Raqqa province. The Observatory said the dead included seven women and five children.

It said it was not clear whether Syrian or Russian warplanes had conducted the air strikes. Separately, Russian warplanes hit the Islamic State-held historic city of Palmyra and its immediate vicinity with some 70 air strikes, the Observatory said, killing at least 18 Islamic State fighters. Government forces and their allies are aiming to capture Palmyra, some 200 km southwest of Raqqa and also held by Islamic State since May.