PHOTO: Jabhat al-Nusra fighters in Aleppo Province, October 2014


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UPDATE 0945 GMT: A woman reacts to a regime rocket attack on her house in Jisr al-Shughour in Idlib Province, “There are no fighters, Jabhat al-Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham here. Why are we being targeted?”


UPDATE 0800 GMT: Jund al-Aqsa and Jabhat al-Nusra have withdrawn from the hills around the village of al-Eis, south of Aleppo.

Local sources said the factions withdrew as Russia bombed the area. The jihadists claimed they killed more than 60 pro-regime foreign militia.


ORIGINAL ENTRY: Syria’s cessation of hostilities was tested on two fronts on Monday: a pro-Assad airstrike killing at least 20 people in a fuel market in Idlib Province in northwest Syria, and two jihadist factions attacked pro-regime foreign militia south of Aleppo city.

The Russian or regime strike hit Abu Duhur, south of Idlib city, wounding another 40 people.

The coordinator of the opposition-rebel High Negotiations Committee, Riad Hijab, told the reporters that the attack was evidence of the continuing breaches of the ceasefire: “Just a few minutes before we came on this conference there was a massacre committed by the air forces of the Russians and the regime.”

Hijab said the High Negotiations Committee would consult military commanders about whether to attend the resumption of talks, convened by UN envoy Staffan de Mistura, next week.

The Local Coordination Committees recorded the deaths of 61 people across Syria on Monday, including 25 in ‪‎Idlib Province and 16 in ‪‎Aleppo Province. ‬

Jihadists Advance Near Aleppo

South of Aleppo, the jihadist factions Jund al-Aqsa and Jabhat al-Nusra struck the pro-Assad foreign militias near the village of al-Eis, close to Khan Tuman.

Despite barrel bombing by regime aircraft, the jihadists took two hills and attacked the village.

Jund al-Aqsa and Jabhat al-Nusra appear to take advantage of the move of Shia militias further south in Aleppo Province to challenge the Islamic State.

Local sources said that no rebel factions covered by the February 27 ceasefire are involved. However, fighters from Ahrar al-Sham and Faylaq al-Sham reportedly joined the attacks, defying the official line of their leadership.

Jabhat al-Nusra video of the operations:


Video: Free Syrian Army Capture Village in Northern Aleppo from Islamic State

The Free Syrian Army have claimed the capture of the village of Doudyan, in northern Aleppo Province, from the Islamic State:

The attack was reportedly led by an FSA Kurdish group, Liwa Ahfad Sallahudeen, and included units from the Faylaq al-Sham faction.

Doudyan is close to the Turkish border, along the rebel-Islamic state frontline to the town of Mare’, and near Syrian Kurdish territory:


2 Killed in Turkey by Cross-Border Islamic State Rockets

Two people, including a toddler, have been killed and two others wounded in southeastern Turkey as the Islamic State fired eight rockets across the border, according to Turkish officials.

The rockets from Syria’s al-Bab region struck Kilis at 2 pm on Tuesday.

The Turkish military said it responded with artillery fire.


Assad Regime: UN-Brokered Talks Resume March 14

The Assad regime has said that UN-brokered talks seeking a political resolution will restart in Geneva on March 14.

An official with Syria’s UN Mission in Geneva told the Russian outlet TASS, that the invitation to talks had been received from UN envoy Staffan de Mistura.

De Mistura initially set the resumption for March 7, but then pushed it back to March 9 and later to March 10.

The previous round of discussions in Geneva ended in early February after less than five days with no success in starting “proximity talks” between the regime and the opposition-rebel High Negotiations Committee.


Russia: We Are Satisfied with Intelligence-Sharing with US Military

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov expressed satisfaction with the relationship with the US military on Monday, speaking about intelligence-sharing over operations:

On the whole, we are satisfied with our cooperation. Naturally, its channels are being improved. It is a new thing for us — we offered that long ago, but our American partners used to have their doubts.

Information exchange centers are currently operating in Geneva and in some other countries of the region. Our military are actively communicating, exchanging information and working with maps. There are certain technical means of tracking breaches and the situation in separate Syria regions, including drones, space means as well as airborne track and surveillance means.

Bogdanov denied that Russia is breaking the February 27 ceasefire, saying that reports of Russian bombing are opposition propaganda:

An information war is under way, and certain forces are not interested in reaching a political settlement in Syria. They want a war and they will continue spreading various information speculations and launch unfounded accusations. They will also use these speculations as a pre-condition for participation in the political process.

He repeated Moscow’s line that the main opposition-rebel bloc, the High Negotiations Committee, should not be the only group in UN-brokered talks with the Assad regime, calling on other factions who have been supported by Moscow to be present.


British Government Demands That Assad Release Detainees

The British Government has used social media to demand that the Assad regime release detainees.

The “UK Against Daesh” Twitter account, set up to challenge the Islamic State, promoted a 30-second video about the pirsoners.

UK Against Daesh is also retweeting messages from activists about the detentions: