Assad regime, allies violated truce 28 times: Watchdog

By Said Ibicioglu

ISTANBUL

The Assad regime and its allies have violated a cease-fire that came into effect in Syria earlier this week a total of 28 times, a London-based watchdog said Thursday.

According to a new report issued by the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), the regime and its allies carried out attacks in the provinces of Daraa, Homs, Idlib, Aleppo, Quneitra and Lattakia within the last 48 hours.

On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, agreed to a 48-hour extension of the cease-fire, which first came into effect on Monday.

The two diplomats agreed that the truce was "worth extending" for another two days "with the aim of achieving an indefinite extension to lower the violence," according to State Department spokesman Mark Toner.

Despite the cease-fire, however, the SNHR said, aid deliveries have been prevented from reaching the eastern part of Aleppo in line with an agreement reached in February.

Nevertheless, SNHR Chairman Fadel Abdul-Ghani said it was "undeniable" that the February cessation-of-hostilities agreement had prevented considerable bloodshed and destruction.

"We have noticed a significant decrease in death and destruction, mainly because aerial bombardments by Russian and Syrian regimes warplanes -- which are the main cause of the killing and destruction -- have ceased," he said.

"We have repeatedly affirmed that by banning aerial warfare in Syria, the death toll can be decreased by 70 percent," Abdul-Ghani added.

The SNHR report called on a joint U.S.-Russian committee to investigate reported cease-fire violations and "make its findings available to the Syrian public".

The report went on to assert that the latest cease-fire would have the "same impact" as the earlier truce unless "violators are held accountable".

At a recent press briefing, Toner said that both regime forces and armed opposition groups had violated the cease-fire, calling on Moscow to use its influence with regime leader Bashar al-Assad to ensure the access of humanitarian aid to besieged parts of the country.