Konflikten i Syrien

Turkey, Islamist groups attack Kurdish forces despite truce in Syria.

The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) reported on Friday that their positions were being attacked by Turkey’s military and Islamist rebels. The anti-YPG offensive*targeted military installations across northern Aleppo Governorate.

“The Turkish Army and allied jihadist groups launched a renewed offensive in the Kurdish areas of Rojava, targeting YPG headquarters with*heavy weapons and airstrikes,” the Protection Unit’s leadership said in a statement.

The Turkish military shelled YPG security offices in the villages of Yabsa, Kerbnav and Seloula with heavy artillery. The artillery bombardment in eastern Kobane, coincided with Turkish air raids on the YPG-held village of Khane.

The Turkey-backed Euphrates Shield Brigades also struck the Kurdish towns of Burj Sulaiman and Mernaz in Afrin’s Sherawa Subdistrict, with rockets and mortar shells.

Both civilian and military casualties were reported. The YPG said that it responded to the attack by bombing the Islamist’s strongholds in northern Aleppo.

“Turkey used the ceasefire as an opportunity to strike Kurdish areas, claiming that the YPG is not part of the truce deal,” Ebdullah told ARA News. “Turkey and its allies have taken*advantage of the war on the Islamic State to*target the Kurds in Syria.”

http://aranews.net/2016/12/turkey-islamist-groups-attack-kurdish-ypg-positions-despite-truce-in-syria/

"ser fram emot mötet i Astana, och betraktar det som ett viktigt steg inför återupptagandet av förhandlingarna under ledning av FN i Genève den 8 februari 2017."

Russia’s UN Envoy Calls on UNSC Not to Discredit Ceasefire in Syria

TEHRAN (FNA)- Russian UN envoy Vitaly Churkin called on his UNSC colleagues not to complicate the situation in Syria and not to discredit a ceasefire proposed by Russia and Turkey.
Churkin made the comments after the UN Security Council adopted a resolution welcoming a ceasefire agreement in Syria, presstv reported.

The nationwide ceasefire in Syria, which came into effect on Thursday midnight, has been largely holding, with most of the country witnessing a relative calm.

"This is a very important initiative. This resolution which was adopted by us speaks to the need to have compliance with cessation of hostilities of regime in Syria and of a very important meeting in Astana, where delegations of the opposition and of the government will for the first time meet face to face,” he added.
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Churkin also called on other UNSC members for their aid as the peace process in Syria is a highly complicated and difficult process.
“If you can't help, if you don't want to help, just make sure that you don't complicate things," he noted.
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The UK’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, Peter Wilson, also hailed the vote and voiced hopes that it holds.

“As we end 2016 we can all agree that it is time to end bloodshed in Syria. The ceasefire is still very fresh and the situation on the ground will develop in the coming days and weeks. But if this ceasefire holds then I sincerely hope that it can provide the foundation for a breakthrough in the wide political process and that 2017 turns out to be a far better year for the people of Syria than 2016 has been," he said.

on the ground in Syria, rebels warned on Saturday that cease-fire violations by pro-government forces threatened to undermine the two-day-old agreement intended to pave the way for talks between the government and the opposition in the new year.

Airstrikes pounded opposition-held villages and towns in the strategically-important Barada Valley outside Damascus, activists said, prompting rebels to threaten to withdraw their compliance with a nationwide truce brokered by Russia and Turkey last week.

The airstrikes let up in the late evening, but rebels nevertheless staged retaliatory attacks against government-held areas in other parts of the country,

http://mobile.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/12/31/world/middleeast/ap-ml-syria.html?_r=0&referer=

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group also reported the attacks. It added that pro-government forces had advanced against rebels in the eastern Ghouta region outside Damascus, in a clear violation of the cease-fire.