Hundreds of Syrians held anti-regime protests Friday in rebel-held Idlib province where a fragile ceasefire has paused a deadly months-old offensive.
Some demonstrators gathered near the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey, where Turkish border guards last week fired warning shots and tear gas to disperse Syrian protesters.
They waved the three-star flag of the eight-year-old uprising and chanted against Bashar al-Assad's regime, while some called on rebel backer Turkey to open its borders.
"We only want the Turkish government to open its borders for our brothers who live under the olive trees," protester Abu Haytham told AFP, referring to displaced Syrians living in the open air.
The demonstrations came after Damascus's ally Russia announced a ceasefire for the northwestern Idlib region last Friday.
Air strikes have stopped since the agreement went into effect last Saturday morning, but sporadic artillery fire has continued.
Russia-backed regime forces have been pressing an offensive against Idlib since the end of April.
More than 1000 civilians have been killed in four months of heavy bombardment, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights.
The United Nations says more than 400,000 people have been displaced.
Last week, an Assad advisor said the Idlib ceasefire was "temporary".
It "serves the grand strategy of liberating every inch of Syrian territory", Buthaina Shaaban told Lebanon's pro-Damascus Al-Mayadeen TV.
According to Al-Watan newspaper in Damascus, the truce sets an eight-day deadline for jihadists and rebels to withdraw from areas around a key highway which the regime wants to control.
But anti-regime forces have yet to pull out.
Most of Idlib province and parts of neighbouring Aleppo and Latakia provinces are controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadist group led by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate.
Russia-backed regime forces have been pressing an offensive against the region despite a deal with rebel backer Turkey in September last year to protect the area.
Assad, who now controls around 60 percent of the country, has vowed to reclaim the rest, including Idlib.
Eight years of war in Syria have killed 560,000 people and driven half the pre-war population of 22 million from their homes, including more than 6 million as refugees to neighbouring countries.
With AFP
Comments About This Article
Please fill the fields below.