Syria task force to meet to shore up fragile truce

AFP (DAMASCUS, Feb 29, 2016): An international task force was to meet on Monday in a bid to shore up Syria's fragile ceasefire, as the United Nations scrambled to deliver aid to thousands of besieged civilians.

The task force, co-chaired by Moscow and Washington, was to meet on Monday at 1400 GMT to evaluate allegations of a range of breaches, a Western diplomat said.

At the weekend, key regime backer Russia traded accusations with the main opposition grouping, the High Negotiations Committee, over truce violations.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on Monday that the allegations "must all of course be verified," but that his government "would be vigilant about (the truce's) concrete application."

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said there been some incidents but the ceasefire was generally holding.

"As of now I can tell you that by and large the cessation of hostilities is holding even though we have experienced some incidents," he told reporters in Geneva.

The truce, which was in its third day on Monday, is meant to open the way for aid to the more than 480,000 Syrians living in areas besieged by government forces, rebels or jihadists.

UN humanitarian coordinator Yacoub El Hillo said the world body hoped to take advantage of the relative calm to distribute supplies to 154,000 people living in besieged areas over the next five days.

An convoy carrying sanitation supplies and blankets was due to head to the town of Moadamiyet al-Sham, surrounded by regime forces south of Damascus, on Monday, a UN source told AFP.

Pressure was building to relieve civilians under siege after the UN's human rights chief said thousands could die of hunger.

"The deliberatestarvation of people is unequivocally forbidden as a weapon of warfare. By extension, so are sieges," Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said, warning that "thousands of people risk starving to death".

The flow of much-needed assistance could also create a more favourable backdrop for peace talks that collapsed in acrimony in early February.

UN envoy Staffan de Mistura aims to relaunch negotiations on March 7 if the ceasefire lasts and more aid is delivered.

The main opposition grouping Sunday described the ceasefire as "positive" but lodged a formal complaint with the United Nations and foreign governments about breaches.

"We have violations here and there, but in general it is a lot better than before and people are comfortable," said Salem al-Meslet, spokesman for the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee.

Meslet said the opposition would like to see the truce "last forever" but that the United States was responsible for preventing violations.

- 'We went out and played' -

An HNC letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon accused the Syrian regime and its allies of committing two dozen truce violations that had killed 29 people and wounded dozens.

The HNC has said it has been kept in the dark about the truce's monitoring mechanism.

The ceasefire does not apply to territory held by the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front.

Government forces recaptured a key supply route near Aleppo city on Monday from IS in clashes that killed 26 pro-regime fighters and 14 IS militants, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Russia, which has waged a five-month bombing campaign to support President Bashar al-Assad, accused "moderate" rebels and jihadists of nine ceasefire violations.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the main mechanisms for implementing the truce were now in place.

"We knew ahead of time that this would not be easy," he told reporters.

In Aleppo, the Observatory reported some rebel rocket fire on government-held neighbourhoods early on Monday but no casualties.

"Our teachers used to forbid us from going out to the school yard because of the air strikes but today we went out and played," said Ranim, a 10-year-old pupil at a primary school in the rebel-held neighbourhood of Bustan al-Qasr.

- 'Inevitable' setbacks -

The Observatory reported nine Russian air strikes on a town in the central province of Hama early on Monday but had no immediate word on any casualties.

It said seven civilians were killed in Russian strikes on Sunday on a town in Aleppo province where Al-Nusra has a presence.

Washington urged patience from all sides to give the truce a chance to firm up.

"Setbacks are inevitable," a senior US administration official said.

"Even under the best of circumstances, we don't expect the violence to end immediately. In fact, we are certain that there will continue to be fighting, in part because of organisations like ISIL (Islamic State) and Al-Nusra."

There has been no let-up in the US-led air campaign against IS since the truce went into effect.

The coalition said that on Sunday it carried out 12 strikes against the jihadists in Syria, four of them around the town of Tal Abyad on the Turkish border where IS has been attempting to regain territory from US-backed Kurdish forces.