Guns silent after UN-backed Syria ceasefire deadline

PanARMENIAN.Net - A UN-backed ceasefire aimed at halting more than a year of bloodshed in Syria appeared to be holding early on Thursday, April 12 but activists saw no sign that President Bashar al-Assad was pulling his forces out of restive cities, Reuters reported.

The flashpoint provinces of Homs, Hama and Idlib, which have been under sustained shelling by Assad's forces over the last week, were calm after the 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) ceasefire deadline. An activist in Damascus said the capital was also quiet.

"More than two hours have passed and it's completely quiet across the country," said Rami Abdulrahman, director of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

The Syrian government bars access to most independent media.

Fighting had raged in the countdown to Thursday's deadline, fuelling widespread doubts that Syria would comply with international envoy Kofi Annan's ceasefire plan.

World leaders, grappling with fundamental disagreements particularly between the West and Russia over how to deal with the crisis, are monitoring events on the ground closely.

"It was a bloody night - there was heavy shelling on the city of Homs, but now it is calm and there is no shooting," said an activist who called himself Abu Rami, speaking from Syria's third largest city which has endured some of the worst violence.

But, like activists in other towns, he said there was no indication that Syrian army forces were withdrawing from Homs in accordance with the ceasefire agreement. "There are no signs of a pull back - the tanks, snipers and armed forces are still visible across the city," he said.

The Syrian Observatory reported explosions in Zabadani, a town close to the Lebanese border, shortly after the deadline. But a resident contacted by Reuters said the town was quiet.