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| In Syria, Cease-Fire for Holiday Falls Apart | In Syria, Cease-Fire for Holiday Falls Apart |
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| BEIRUT, Lebanon — The already tenuous truce called in Syria to mark the most important Muslim holiday of the year eroded markedly on Saturday as renewed armed clashes prompted each side to accuse the other of breaking the cease-fire. | |
| The truce was ragged from the start, considering the fractured nature of the fighting across the country, and the opposition accused the government of resuming aerial bombardments and shelling urban centers. The official news agency, SANA, meanwhile, reported what it said were numerous cease-fire violations throughout the country by the opposition, which the government calls “terrorist gangs.” Extremist brigades outside the Free Syrian Army, the main rebel umbrella group, had said from the beginning that they would not respect the truce. | |
| Virtually every major battleground seemed to report a resumption in hostilities. | Virtually every major battleground seemed to report a resumption in hostilities. |
| In perhaps the most serious outbreak, a warplane fired missiles into a residential building in the Damascus suburb of Arbeen, killing eight men, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the fighting from abroad. | In perhaps the most serious outbreak, a warplane fired missiles into a residential building in the Damascus suburb of Arbeen, killing eight men, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the fighting from abroad. |
| If confirmed, it would be the first aerial attack since the ad hoc truce started on Friday morning. The account could not be independently confirmed, but pictures posted on Facebook showed a shattered residential structure and a large crater filled with rubble where a missile seems to have exploded. | If confirmed, it would be the first aerial attack since the ad hoc truce started on Friday morning. The account could not be independently confirmed, but pictures posted on Facebook showed a shattered residential structure and a large crater filled with rubble where a missile seems to have exploded. |
| In Aleppo, an activist who uses the nickname Abu al-Hassan said government tanks had resumed shelling, especially around the airport. Several towns around Aleppo and in an adjacent province, Idlib, were also shelled, activists said. | |
| “There is a clear breach of the truce,” Ahmad Kadour, an Idlib activist, said. | “There is a clear breach of the truce,” Ahmad Kadour, an Idlib activist, said. |
| Government forces were moving convoys full of reinforcements up the road to Wadi al-Deif, the site of a military base where there was fighting a day earlier, he said. | Government forces were moving convoys full of reinforcements up the road to Wadi al-Deif, the site of a military base where there was fighting a day earlier, he said. |
| Rebel commanders had been worried from the outset of the truce that the Syrian military would use it to try to resupply beleaguered northern outposts in order to retake ground it had lost to the rebel fighters in recent weeks. | |
| “Free Army battalions are still struggling to prevent the arrival of these reinforcements to Idlib and to recover their territorial gains,” Mr. Kadour said. | “Free Army battalions are still struggling to prevent the arrival of these reinforcements to Idlib and to recover their territorial gains,” Mr. Kadour said. |
| In the central city of Homs, residents said there was no sign of any respite from the fighting. “There are regime snipers shooting at us from several fronts, and the city remains under siege, as it has been for 141 days,” Abu Bilal, an activist, said. “This siege alone is considered a military operation, so with or without the truce, this criminal regime obviously does not care.” | In the central city of Homs, residents said there was no sign of any respite from the fighting. “There are regime snipers shooting at us from several fronts, and the city remains under siege, as it has been for 141 days,” Abu Bilal, an activist, said. “This siege alone is considered a military operation, so with or without the truce, this criminal regime obviously does not care.” |
| In the eastern city of Deir al-Zour, fierce firefights erupted between government forces and rebel fighters after car bombs exploded near a military headquarters and in front of the Syriac Orthodox Church, according to SANA and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which said five people were killed. | |
| Airplanes also shelled Deir al-Zour, activists said. | Airplanes also shelled Deir al-Zour, activists said. |
| But not everyone was ready to write the truce off as a total loss. In some places, there was no aerial shelling and the street battles had ebbed. | But not everyone was ready to write the truce off as a total loss. In some places, there was no aerial shelling and the street battles had ebbed. |
| “It kind of depends on the area,” said Iyas Kadoni, a civil-society activist from Saraqib, near Aleppo, which was much quieter than Homs, according to reports from his friends. “It has been calm over here.” | “It kind of depends on the area,” said Iyas Kadoni, a civil-society activist from Saraqib, near Aleppo, which was much quieter than Homs, according to reports from his friends. “It has been calm over here.” |
| The overall level of violence seemed to diminish on Friday, the first day of the four-day truce called to mark Id al-Adha, the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice, at least enough for demonstrators to emerge onto the streets in significant numbers for the first time in weeks. Opposition activists said that while they had noticed planes circling overhead, the aircraft had not strafed or shelled on Friday. | The overall level of violence seemed to diminish on Friday, the first day of the four-day truce called to mark Id al-Adha, the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice, at least enough for demonstrators to emerge onto the streets in significant numbers for the first time in weeks. Opposition activists said that while they had noticed planes circling overhead, the aircraft had not strafed or shelled on Friday. |
| The government, in accepting a cease-fire proposed by Lakhdar Brahimi, the international envoy trying to negotiate a peace deal, said it reserved the right to resume military activity to respond to the so-called terrorist gangs. In another development, a rebel brigade in the Aleppo district of Azaz said it detained Fidaa Itani, a Lebanese reporter from the LBC channel, because his work was incompatible with the revolution. The announcement said he would be held under house arrest pending an investigation. | |