The guns have stopped firing, but troops are still in the streets across the country.
Reports indicate that major fighting in Syria has stopped following the deadline for a UN-brokered ceasefire. The usual shelling and rifle bursts heard throughout Syria’s major cities have fallen silent, although activists in the country say troops have yet to withdraw from the cities and continue to raid homes and arrest citizens. Their withdrawal from cities was one of the key points of the peace plan, which was the result of former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan’s negotiations with both the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and opposition forces. That Assad’s forces have apparently stopped their wanton firing is promising, but they’re only about 15 hours into the ceasefire and if there’s one thing that’s marked the Syrian crackdown, it’s been the Assad’s regime’s predilection for saying things the international community wants to hear and doing just the opposite. For further updates, we recommend you follow the typically great Guardian Syria liveblog and the one from al Jazeera, too.
