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 In a further upsurge in violence, al Qaeda's Nusra Front and other
Islamist insurgents not included in the U.S.-Russian agreement
attacked government forces in a neighboring province, taking over a
village and at least two hilltops in their first advance for some
time in the area, a monitoring group said.
The agreement, accepted by President Bashar al-Assad's government
and most of his enemies, has reduced violence in Syria since it took
effect on Feb 27, the first truce of its kind in a 5-year-old war
that has killed more than 250,000 people and caused the world's
worst refugee crisis.
Foreign powers hope the pause in fighting can lead to peace talks to
end the conflict. But the agreement, which has not been directly
signed by the Syrian warring parties and is less binding than a
formal ceasefire, is very fragile and each side has accused the
other of breaking it.
Damascus and Moscow have vowed to continue fighting groups outside
the agreement such as Islamic State and the Nusra Front, which is
widely deployed across western Syria in close proximity to groups
that agreed to cease fire. Many rebels say they believe the
government and its Russian allies can use the presence of the
militants as an excuse to fight on.
 The death toll from the air strike on a market selling diesel in
rebel-held Idlib province was likely to rise, the Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights monitoring group said, adding that it did not know
whether the Syrian government or its Russian ally was responsible.
Riad Hijab, chairman of the opposition High Negotiations Committee
(HNC), said "tens" of people had been killed in what he described as
a massacre. There was no word from the Syrian government, which has
said it is respecting the agreement.
Hijab said the opposition would decide by the end of the week
whether to attend the talks, which the United Nations aims to start
this week. Another HNC member told Reuters it was leaning toward
going.
The Nusra Front and the Islamist Jund al-Aqsa attacked government
forces in southern Aleppo province and captured the village of
al-Ais and two nearby hilltops in subsequent clashes, the
Britain-based Observatory said. There were many casualties, it said,
without giving an exact figure.
It was the first advance by Nusra Front in the area this year, the
Observatory said. Nusra said in online statements it had taken over
the same hilltops.
Russia's intervention in the war has in recent months helped Syrian
government forces and their allies recapture territory lost last
year in many parts of western Syria, including Aleppo province.
Insurgents have made some gains elsewhere, such as Hama province.
The cessation of hostilities agreement has been followed by more aid
deliveries to opposition-held areas blockaded by the government,
though the opposition says the quantities fall far short of needs.
DISPUTED MAP
Rebels have said government forces, their war effort buoyed by five
months of Russian air strikes, appear to be mobilizing forces.
Opposition fighters say there have been numerous government attacks
on their positions during the cessation, notably in northwestern
Syria near the border with Turkey.
Russia has meanwhile said weapons are being supplied daily to rebels
from Turkey, a major foreign sponsor of the rebellion.
Russia's Defence Ministry said on Monday eight ceasefire violations
had been registered in Syria over the past 24 hours.
The Syrian army has said very little about operations in western
areas of Syria covered by the agreement, though it has said
operations against Nusra continue.
The town struck in Monday's air strike is close to an air base which
Nusra Front and other groups captured last September. Government
forces also shelled the rebel-held town of Jisr al-Shughour in Idlib
province, the Observatory said.
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Hijab, speaking in a conference call with reporters, said he had
sent a letter to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to complain
about a map of armed groups' positions, which was published by the
Russian Defence Ministry. He said the map was not accurate.
In a separate incident, the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said the
death toll from insurgent attacks on a mainly YPG-controlled
residential quarter of northern city Aleppo on Sunday had risen to
16, including nine children.
The Observatory said it was the biggest single toll since the
agreement came into effect.
The YPG said later on Monday insurgents from the Failaq al-Sham
Islamist group had "infiltrated" near a village near the
YPG-controlled city of Afrin in northwestern Aleppo province and
fired at residents.
The YPG is backed by the United States to fight Islamic State in
Syria's northeast, and has been the most effective partner on the
ground for a U.S.-led air campaign against IS in Syria.
It has separately been battling insurgents that receive support
through Turkey, to the alarm of U.S. ally Ankara, which sees the
Kurdish fighters as a danger along its border and has shelled the
YPG in the Afrin area.
GOVERNING AUTHORITY
Western states have said the cessation of hostilities appears to be
largely holding, hoping that will allow for peace talks to get
underway. A previous attempt to convene talks was aborted in
February before any face-to-face meetings took place.
The obstacles to talks remain formidable, including differences over
the future of Assad. The opposition wants Assad removed from power
at the start of a transitional period, a demand Western countries
have backed away from as Russia's military intervention has reshaped
the war in his favor.
HNC member Riad Nassan Agha said a final decision on attending the
Geneva talks would depend on issues including the degree of
compliance with the truce and progress toward easing humanitarian
conditions.
But noting what he described as a reduction in ceasefire violations
by the government side in the last two days, Agha said "our
inclination is to go" and said he expected opposition delegates to
start arriving on Friday.
He added that truce violations must be reduced to "zero" and that
nothing else must happen to obstruct the start of talks.
"We will go, God willing," he said.
The agenda must focus on the "formation of a transitional governing
authority" in line with a U.N. Security Council resolution, he said,
adding: "We will not accept getting into issues outside what the
resolution sets out".
(Additional reporting by John Davision; Editing by Dominic Evans,
Philippa Fletcher, Peter Graff and Andrew Hay)
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