Truce back in Homs after safe zone agreed

Moscow:  Syrian regime forces and “moderate” rebels will cease fire in northern parts of Homs province after Russia struck a deal with the opposition on implementing a third safe zone, Moscow said.
“From 1200 local time (0900 GMT), units of the moderate opposition and government forces will completely stop firing,” defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.
Konashenkov said Moscow and Syrian opposition groups had reached an agreement on the “operational details” of a “de-escalation zone” north of the city of Homs at talks in Cairo on July 31. The zone is the third to be established in Syria under a Russian-led initiative aimed at halting fighting in four areas between President Bashar Al Assad’s forces and rebels.
It covers 84 towns and villages with a total population of 147,000 people, Moscow said.
Konashenkov said Russian military police will set up two checkpoints and three observation posts today along the boundaries of the zone dividing the two forces.
Rebels had agreed to “unblock” part of a road running through the safe zone between the cities of Homs and Hama and a “Committee for National Justice” made up of rebels and local groups would help oversee the implementation of the plan, he said. The northern parts of Homs province were recently being shelled by regime forces and hit by intermittent air strikes. Towns in the area were among the first to fall to Assad’s opponents in 2012 after a revolt against his rule. They have remained outside the hands of militant groups including the Islamic State (IS), which do not fall under the Russian deal.
Russia last month struck a deal with the United States and Jordan for a ceasefire in another southern zone, where Moscow has now deployed its military police.
Under a second agreement sealed with rebels in July Russian forces also set up two checkpoints and four observation posts in an area covering conflict-ravaged Eastern Ghouta near Damascus.