Syria army, rebels agree to ceasefire

SYRIA'S army and main rebel force said they will cease fire, in line with an internationally backed truce during a Muslim holiday, but both reserved the right to respond to any aggression.

A peace initiative by UN and Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi calls on both sides to observe a truce during the four-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha from today marking the end of the annual hajj pilgrimage.

"Military operations will cease on Syrian territory as of Friday morning, until Monday," the army said in a statement read on state television.

"(The military) reserves the right to respond to continuing attacks on civilians and government forces by armed groups."

And the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the chief among many rebel groups battling President Bashar al-Assad's forces, responded positively soon after, saying it too would lay down its weapons as long as regime troops adhere to the ceasefire.

"We will respect the ceasefire from tomorrow morning if the Syrian army does the same," General Mustafa al-Sheikh said by telephone from Turkey.

"But if they fire a single shot, we will respond with 100. So we reserve the right to respond."

The FSA had previously said it doubts Damascus would stand by any commitment.

If it holds, a ceasefire would mark the first real breakthrough in halting - even temporarily - the 19-month conflict that rights groups say has killed more than 35,000 people.

A ceasefire announced by Brahimi's predecessor, former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, in April failed to take hold.

Shortly before the announcements, there were no signs of a slowdown in the fighting, with rebels moving into a strategically important Kurdish neighbourhood in the main battleground city of Aleppo.

Residents in Aleppo's Ashrafiyeh district - a key area in the heights of the commercial capital - said about 200 rebels had moved in to the area for the first time.

One resident said the rebels, who arrived on vehicles mounted with heavy machineguns and bearing the markings of the Liwa al-Tawhid main rebel unit, made it clear they were settling in for Eid despite the promises of a ceasefire.

"Snipers have set up in the buildings and 50 armed men, dressed in black and wearing headbands with Islamic slogans, entered a school near me. I heard them tell the residents: 'We are here to spend Eid with you'," he said.

"I am waiting for things to calm down before leaving," he said.

Rebels and troops were also locked in fighting in the mainly Christian district of Seryan just south of Ashrafiyeh, said residents.

Elsewhere, rebels took control of a military post in the northeastern province of Raqa, troops bombed the Damascus suburb of Harasta and battles in the capital's southern areas of Tadamun and Qadam, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The watchdog gave an initial toll of 49 people - 28 civilians, 13 soldiers and eight rebels - killed on Thursday across Syria, including at least 12 by mortar fire in Aleppo's Ashrafiyeh.

'War crimes committed'

Other rebel groups have refused to accept the proposal, including the Al-Nusra Front, an Islamist militant group that has claimed responsibility for several deadly suicide bombings against symbols of the Assad regime.

The Al-Nusra Front said it will not lay down its weapons and denounced the truce as a "trick".

The United States also voiced scepticism, with US envoy to the UN Susan Rice saying many would doubt the regime's word "given Assad's record of broken promises".

Still, Brahimi stressed that "if we succeed with this modest initiative, a longer ceasefire can be built" that would allow the launch of a political process.

Brahimi said he wanted the ceasefire to help create political space for dialogue and for aid to flow in, particularly to the cities of Aleppo in the north, Homs in the centre and Idlib in the northwest.

And the UN's refugee agency said it was ready to send emergency aid to thousands of Syrian families in previously inaccessible areas if the ceasefire holds.

"In all, some 550 tonnes of supplies are being made available for distribution to up to 13,000 affected families - some 65,000 people - in several previously inaccessible areas," said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Meanwhile, the international community was boosting pressure on the regime, with UN rights investigators saying they would go after high-ranking officials responsible for atrocities.

Former war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte, who joined the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria last month, said that without a doubt "crimes against humanity and war crimes" were being committed in Syria.

Ms Del Ponte said she was focusing on determining "the high-ranking political and military figures (responsible for) these crimes".

The UN investigators also said they had sent a letter to Assad seeking access to the country, after being barred from seeing the conflict first-hand since the commission was created just over a year ago.

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