Syria ceasefire breaks down as shelling renews

PanARMENIAN.Net - A ceasefire in a Syrian town near the Lebanese border and in two villages to the north has broken down after renewed heavy shelling, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said on Saturday, Aug 29, Reuters reports.

The truce between the Syrian army and the Lebanese group Hezbollah on the one side, and Syrian insurgents on the other, came into effect on Thursday in the western town of Zabadani and the Shi'ite Muslim villages of Kefraya and al-Foua in the northwest.

The ceasefire in the three areas had been extended late on Friday but had collapsed by the morning, said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Britain-based Observatory.

Insurgents fired around 200 shells into areas in and around Kefraya and al-Foua early on Saturday, and Syrian warplanes carried out raids elsewhere in the province, he said.

Sources on both sides said talks were continuing despite the ceasefire breach. The negotiations on the rebel side have been led by the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham group.

The sides had discussed evacuating the wounded from the three areas under the ceasefire but so far none have been transported out, the Observatory said, according to Reuters.

Zabadani has been at the centre an offensive by Hezbollah and the Syrian army against insurgent groups. The area is important to the Syrian government because of its proximity to the capital Damascus and the Lebanese border.