Relative calm in Syrian safe zones after deal implemented

A Syrian man sells birds on the street in the rebel-held town of Douma, on the eastern outskirts of Damascus on Saturday. Fighting subsided in Syria after a deal signed by government backers Russia and Iran and rebel supporter Turkey to create four safe zones began to take effect, a monitor said. (AFP / Sameer Al-Doumy)

BEIRUT, Lebanon: Relative calm prevailed Saturday in wide parts of war-ravaged Syria despite sporadic violations and clashes after a deal to set up “de-escalation zones” in mostly opposition-held areas went into effect, opposition activists and government media outlets said.
There were no immediate reports of casualties after the plan hammered out by Russia, Turkey and Iran — the latest attempt to bring calm to the country — kicked in at midnight Friday.
The establishment of safe zones is the latest international attempt to reduce violence amid a six-year civil war that has left more than 400,000 dead, and is the first to envisage armed foreign monitors on the ground in Syria. The United States is not party to the agreement and the Syrian rivals have not signed on to the deal. The armed opposition, instead, was highly critical of the proposal, saying it lacks legitimacy.
Details of of the plan must still be worked out over the next several weeks. There were limited reports of bombing in northern Homs and Hama, and the southern province of Daraa, areas expected to be part of the “de-escalation zones,” activists said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
It is not clear how the cease-fire or “de-escalation zones” will be enforced in areas still to be determined in maps to emerge a month from now.
Russian officials said it will be at least another month until the details are worked out and the safe areas established.
In the tangled mess that constitutes Syria’s battlefields, there is much that can go wrong with the plan, agreed on in talks Thursday in Kazakhstan.
Syria’s government has said that although it will abide by the agreement, it would continue fighting “terrorism” wherever it exists, parlance for most armed rebel groups fighting government troops.
The armed opposition delegation to the talks in the Kazakh capital of Astana said in a statement released early Saturday that the truce should include all Syria and not just specific areas. It said some maps of the “de-escalation zones” that were released are not accurate and will not be accepted because the armed opposition did not negotiate them.
Still, opposition activists in southern, central and northern Syria told The Associated Press on Saturday the situation is by far much better than previous days, with no airstrikes reported.
The government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media reported there was “relative clam” Saturday morning in the “de-escalation zones” nine hours after the deal went into effect.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has activists around the country, said the government’s helicopter gunships dropped three barrel bombs on the rebel-held Latamneh area in central Syria where fighting was reported between rebels and troops. It added that government forces shelled rebel-held neighborhoods of the capital Damascus.
“Despite some violations the situation is much calmer than before,” said opposition activist Mohammed Al-Homsi, speaking via Skype from northern Syria.
Ahmad Al-Masalmeh, who is based in the southern province of Daraa that borders Jordan, said there were six breaches in the province when government forces shelled opposition-held areas.
Al-Homsi, Al-Masalmeh and opposition activist Osama Abu Zeid said government warplanes have not carried out any airstrikes on rebel-held areas since Wednesday, a day before the deal to set up the zones was signed in Kazakhstan.
Syrian, Russian, Turkish and US-led coalition aircraft sometimes operate in the same areas in Syria. It is not yet clear how the new plan would affect flightpaths of coalition warplanes battling Daesh group militants and other radical groups — and whether the American air force would abide by a diminished air space.
The Pentagon said the de-escalation agreement would not affect the US-led air campaign against Daesh.
Russia and Iran — two of the plan’s three sponsors — are key allies of President Bashar Assad’s government and both are viewed as foreign occupation forces by his opponents. Rebels fighting to topple Assad are enraged by Iran’s role in the deal and blame the Shiite power for fueling the sectarian nature of Syria’s conflict, now in its seventh year.
Turkey, the third sponsor, is a major backer of opposition factions and has also sent troops into northern Syria, drawing the ire of Assad and his government.
Yet troops from the three countries are now expected to secure four safe zones. An official with Russia’s military general staff said other countries may eventually have a role in enforcing the de-escalation areas.
Russian Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi told reporters on Friday that personnel from Russia, Iran and Turkey will operate checkpoints and observation posts.
But it’s difficult to imagine how many boots on the ground would be needed to monitor the yet to be mapped areas or how and where exactly Russian, Iranian and Turkish troops would patrol.
A previous cease-fire agreement that went into effect on Dec. 30 helped reduce overall violence in Syria for several weeks but eventually collapsed. Other attempts at a cease-fire in Syria have all ended in failure.