Friday Prayers suspended in northern Homs as regime violates truce

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Friday Prayers have been suspended in the northern countryside of Homs as regime forces keep violating a one-week-old truce, according to statement issued by Shariah Court.

The main clergy body in Hola region said fears over worshipers lives make the suspension of Friday Prayers a necessity.

Rebels of northern Homs accused Syrian regime army of violating the one-week-old truce on Thursday that left one man dead.

Luai al-Izzo, commander of Ahfad Omar Battalion, said regime warplanes carried out 10 raids on Hola region north of Homs, killing one person and wounding dozen, a week since Russia brokered a ceasefire deal and deployed its military police.

Al-Ezzo said the Russian military police have withdrawn from Dar al-Kabira checkpoint, the only gateway to northern Homs, becuase they denied entry to rebel areas with a convoy of Russian humanitarian aid. ''Detainees release is the first priority of rebels,;' he added.

The strikes pounded town of Teldo, Tel Thahab, Aqrab and Kafr Laha, recording first casualty since the truce declared last Thursday. In response, rebel have cut off the man power supply station that feeds Coastal region

A committee formed by rebel factions and civil society in northern Homs met with the Russian military on Tuesday where both parties discussed the fate of forcibly disappeared and detainees as well the food and aid entry to the besieged region.

The committee, in statement posted online, said residents and rebels of de-escalation zones in Syria seek a unified platform for the basic three zones in Eastern Ghouta, Syrian south and northern Homs, to reach a new deal to substitute Cairo agreement.

rebels said the committee to meet again next week with Russia over planned detainees release.

The truce that began Thursday and the deployment are part of the third of four planned cease-fires reached in recent months under an agreement brokered by Russia, Iran and Turkey in May that aims to "de-escalate" the violent Syrian civil war, now in its sixth year.