The Latest: Erdogan says Syrian cease-fire works ‘partially’

The Associated Press
The Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the conflict in Syria as a fragile cease-fire enters its second day (all times local):

4:30 p.m.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says a cease-fire aiming to reduce the violence in neighboring Syria is only being partially implemented.

Erdogan expressed hope that “today or tomorrow this cease-fire will be secured and that calm prevails in Syria” after noting that it is only being adhered to “in about one-third” of the war-torn nation.

He made the remarks at a news conference in Istanbul prior to embarking on a trip to Africa.

The cease-fire brokered by the U.S. and Russia has brought relative quiet to parts of Syria for the first time in years although rebel groups say they have documented numerous breaches by government forces that could derail the agreement.

Fighting also continues against the Islamic State group which, along with al-Qaida’s branch in Syria, was left out of the deal. The Syrian conflict has killed 250,000 lives and triggered one of the worst refugee crises since World War II.

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4 p.m.

The Russian military operating in Syria says it has information about an artillery attack on the Syrian border town of Tell Abyad from Turkish territory.

A cease-fire brokered by Moscow and Washington went into effect early Saturday morning. Russia has set up a center for monitoring the truce at the Hemeimeem air base in Syria, where Russian warplanes are based. Russian news agencies on Sunday quoted the head of the center, Lt. Gen Sergei Kuralenko, as saying that his office has turned to the corresponding U.S. center in Amman for an explanation, since Turkey is a member of the U.S.-led coalition,

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1 p.m.

Opposition monitoring groups say warplanes have carried out air raids on two villages in northern Syria.

Sunday’s air raids came on the second day of a cease-fire brokered by Russia and the U.S., the most ambitious effort yet to curb the violence of the country’s five-year civil war.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the airstrikes hit the villages of Daret Azzeh and Qobtan al-Jabal. The group did not say whether the warplanes were Russian or Syrian.

The Local Coordination Committees said the warplanes were Russian.

It was not immediately clear if the warplanes struck areas controlled by al-Qaida’s branch in Syria, known as the Nusra Front. Both the Nusra Front and the Islamic State group are excluded from the truce.

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