Morning Star.png Major Rebel Groups Reject Kerry-Lavrov Ceasefire James Tweedie, The Morning Star, London, 12 September 2016 Prominent rebel groups in Syria rejected the latest ceasefire agreement over the weekend - one claiming the US had killed a top commander. A deal to secure the latest cessation of hostilities, due to begin today, was struck on Friday night between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his US counterpart John Kerry. The Syrian government and its international allies welcomed the deal over the weekend, although Iran's ambassador to Damascus Mohammad-Reza Raouf Sheibani warned yesterday that a ceasefire should not be used to strengthen terrorist groups. Not committed But Ahrar as-Sham, one of the two main insurgent groups in the Saudi-convened High Negotiations Committee, said yesterday that it was not committed to the truce, the Saudi al-Arabiya news agency reported. The group said that 170 of its militants had been killed in the failed attempt to break the siege of insurgent-occupied east Aleppo - possibly indicating its reluctance to halt the battle. Ahrar as-Sham is a member of the Army of Conquest, an alliance of Western-armed groups and the Levant Conquest Front (LCF), Syria's al-Qaida affiliate. On Saturday a purported statement from the Army of Conquest repeated accusations that the US air force was responsible for an air raid on one of its command posts in Aleppo province last Thursday. The statement called the attack, which killed top commander Abu Omar Saraqib, also known as Abu Hajer al-Homsi, a betrayal and an "act of war." The previous ceasefire in February broke down as Western-backed insurgents renewed their alliance with al-Qaida to attack Aleppo and other cities. Fighting continued over the weekend as the Syrian army sought to continue its recent momentum of advances - brought to a halt, as in February, by the truce. Israelis On Saturday Israel launched air strikes against Syrian troops in the village of Hader in the Golan Heights area of south-western Quneitra province, apparently timed to coincide with a joint LCF and Ahrar as-Sham offensive there. Israel attacked after claiming a stray Syrian shell had landed in the sector of the heights it has occupied since 1967. Saturday's offensive was beaten back, but fierce fighting continued yesterday, with the insurgents making ground in the village of Humirat. [email protected] From: http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-6fce-Major-rebel-groups-reject-Kerry-La vrov-brokered-ceasefire#.V9Ysmvl9600 __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 14106 (20160912) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/yclsa-eom-forum/001e01d20cba%244abe94e0%24e03bbea0%24%40com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
