Syria's warring sides trade fire with peace talks set to begin, monitor says

Reuters

23 February 2017 at 3:21 am

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian warplanes carried out air strikes on rebel-held areas in Deraa and Hama provinces and insurgents fired rockets at government targets on Thursday, the day peace talks are set to begin in Geneva, a war monitoring group said. However, the overall level of violence in western Syria was somewhat lower than in previous days, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The Geneva talks are taking place after nearly two months of a shaky ceasefire between the government and rebels, with each side accusing the other of violations. Hard-line jihadist groups such as Islamic State are excluded from the truce. (Reporting by John Davison, editing by Larry King)

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