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Syrian Rebels Say They No Longer Respect U.N.-Backed Truce

Syrian rebels said they are no longer holding their fire. Reuters reports that the rebels are walking away from the United-Nations-backed truce with the regime of Bashar Assad.

"We have decided to end our commitment to this (ceasefire)," Free Syrian Army spokesman Major Sami al-Kurdi told Reuters. "We have resumed our attacks but we are doing defensive attacks which means we are only attacking checkpoints in the cities."

Kurdi told Reuters that the only way this conflict will be resolved is with an international intervention. Kurdi said an internationally enforced no-fly zone would "help bring Assad down."

The further crumbling of the truce was compounded by reports from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which was able to confirm the rebels killed at least 80 soldiers.

The Guardian reports:

"Insurgents told the British-based group they had killed more than 100 soldiers and destroyed some tanks in clashes across Syria, including in Damascus and Idlib province, in the north-west.

"Syria's state news agency reported the burial on Monday of 30 members of the security forces killed by rebels.

"Some commanders in the rebel Free Syrian Army announced last week they would be "free of any commitment" to Annan's peace plan if Assad failed to end violence by Friday. The massacre of at least 108 people, nearly half of them children, in the Houla area of Homs province on 25 May dealt a possibly fatal blow to Annan's proposed ceasefire, which was supposed to have taken effect on 12 April."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.