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 Under the U.S.-Russian accord accepted by President Bashar
al-Assad's government and many of his enemies, fighting should cease
so aid can reach civilians and talks can open to end a war that has
killed more than 250,000 people and made 11 million homeless.
Russia, which says it intends to continue strikes against areas held
by Islamist fighters that are not covered by the truce, said it
would suspend all flights over Syria for the day on Saturday to
ensure no wrong targets were hit by mistake.
A Syrian rebel commander said government shelling had stopped in
some parts of Syria but continued elsewhere in what he described as
a violation that could wreck the agreement.
The truce is the culmination of new diplomatic efforts that reflect
a battlefield dramatically changed since Russia joined the war in
September with air strikes to prop up Assad. Moscow's intervention
effectively destroyed the hope his enemies have maintained for five
years -- encouraged by Arab and Western states -- to topple him by
force.
The agreement is the first of its kind to be attempted in four years
and, if it holds, would be the most successful truce of the war so
far.
 But there are weak spots in a fragile deal which has not been
directly signed by the Syrian warring parties and is less binding
than a formal ceasefire. Importantly, it does not cover powerful
jihadist groups such as Islamic State and the Nusra Front, al
Qaeda's branch in Syria.
"Let's pray that this works because frankly this is the best
opportunity we can imagine the Syrian people has had for the last
five years in order to see something better and hopefully something
related to peace," U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said at a
midnight news conference in Geneva.
He said he expected occasional breaches of the agreement but called
on the parties to show restraint and curb escalation.
Several insurgents in the western and northern part of the country
said early on Saturday that it was mainly quiet so far.
Nevertheless, Fares Bayoush, head of the Fursan al-Haqq rebel group
which fights under the banner of the Free Syrian Army, told Reuters
that continuing violations could lead to the "collapse of the
agreement".
"There are areas where the bombardment has stopped but there are
areas where there are violations by the regime such as Kafr Zeita in
Hama, via targeting with artillery, and likewise in Morek in
northern Hama countryside."
REPORTS OF VIOLENCE
In early reports of violence, a Syrian rebel group in the northwest
said three of its fighters had been killed while repelling an attack
from government ground forces a few hours after the plan came into
effect. Its spokesman called it a breach of the agreement; the
Syrian military could not be reached immediately for comment.
Syria's state media said at least two people were killed and several
wounded when a car bomb exploded at the entrance of Salamiya, a town
east of Hama city and a frontline between government forces and
Islamic State group. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which
monitors the conflict said it was carried out by Islamic State.
The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said Islamic State fighters had
attacked Tal Abyad, a town near the Turkish border.
Damascus and Moscow say they will respect the agreement but continue
to fight the Nusra Front and Islamic State. Other rebels seen as
moderates by the West say they fear this will be used to justify
attacks on them.
 Russia's defense ministry said it would suspend air strikes in a
"green zone" -- defined as those parts of Syria held by groups that
have accepted the cessation -- and make no flights at all on
Saturday.
"Given the entry into force of the U.N. Security Council resolution
that supports the Russian-American agreements on a ceasefire, and to
avoid any possible mistakes when carrying out strikes, Russian
military planes, including long-range aviation, are not carrying out
any flights over Syrian territory on Feb. 27," the defense ministry
said.
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Sergei Rudskoi, a lieutenant-general in the Russian air force, told
a news briefing that Moscow had sent the United States a list of
6,111 fighters who had agreed to the ceasefire deal and 74 populated
areas which should not be bombed.
Nusra Front, one of Syria's most powerful Islamist rebel groups,
often operates close to other groups, making it potentially
difficult to prove whether strikes have targeted it. On Friday,
Nusra urged insurgents to intensify their attacks on Assad and his
allies.
"THERE IS CALM"
A rebel fighter said government forces briefly fired artillery at a
village in Aleppo province, which he said was under the control of
the Levant Front, another group under the umbrella of the Free
Syrian Army which has backed the truce.
Nevertheless he said the frontline was quieter than before the
agreement took effect.
"There is calm. Yesterday at this time there were fierce battles. It
is certainly strange, but the people are almost certain that the
regime will breach the truce on the grounds of hitting Nusra. There
is the sound of helicopters from the early morning," he told Reuters
earlier on Saturday.
Fighting raged across much of western Syria right up until the
cessation came into effect but there was calm in many parts of the
country shortly after midnight, the Observatory said.
"In Damascus and its countryside ... for the first time in years,
calm prevails," Observatory director Rami Abdulrahman said. "In
Latakia, calm, and at the Hmeimim air base there is no plane
activity," he said, referring to the Latakia base where Russia's
warplanes operate.
Some gunfire had been heard shortly after midnight in the northern
city of Aleppo, and there were some blasts heard in northern Homs
province, but it was not clear what had caused them, Abdulrahman
said.
After years in which any action by the United Nations Security
Council was blocked by Moscow, Russia's intervention has opened a
path for multilateral diplomacy while undermining the long-standing
Western demand that Assad leave power.
The Security Council unanimously demanded late on Friday that all
parties to the conflict comply with terms of the plan. De Mistura
said he intends to restart peace talks on March 7, provided the halt
in fighting largely holds.
U.N.-backed peace talks, the first in two years and the first to
include delegations from Damascus and the rebels, collapsed earlier
this month before they began, with the rebels saying they could not
negotiate while they were being bombed.
The government, backed by Russian air strikes, has dramatically
advanced in recent weeks, moving close to encircling Aleppo, Syria's
biggest city before the war, and threatening to seal the Turkish
border that has served as the main lifeline for rebel-held areas.
Washington said it was time for Russia to show it was serious about
halting fighting by honoring a commitment not to strike Syrian
groups that are part of the moderate opposition.
(Reporting by John Davison, Mariam Karouny and Tom Perry in Beirut,
Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols at the United Nations in New
York, Tom Miles and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and Andrew Osborn in
Moscow; Writing by Mariam Karouny and Peter Graff)
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