BEIRUT // Hizbollah and Syrian rebels are observing a 48-hour ceasefire in a border town and two Shiite villages in northern Syria, the Lebanese militant group’s television station has reported.
Al Manar TV and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights say the ceasefire in Zabadani near the Lebanese border and the villages of Foua and Kfarya went into effect on Wednesday morning.
Hizbollah and Syrian troops have been trying to capture the one-time rebel stronghold of Zabadani for more than a month.
A coalition of rebel groups which calls itself Jaysh Al Fateh, or Conquest Army, retaliated by attacking Foua and Kfarya, which are home to mostly Shiite villagers. A large number of civilians are trapped by the fighting there.
Meanwhile, Syrian regime air strikes on the Eastern Ghouta region near Damascus killed at least 27 civilians, the Observatory said.
The Observatory said at least 120 people were injured in the raids, several of them seriously, and that the death toll was likely to rise.
The air raids hit the towns of Douma, Saqba, Kafr Batna and Hammouriyeh in Eastern Ghouta, a rebel stronghold region as rebels fired dozens of rockets into Damascus, killing at least four people, according to Syria’s interior ministry.
The ministry, quoted by state television, said “four people were killed and 58 others were wounded, in addition to material damage”, in residential neighbourhoods of Damascus.
The Observatory said rebels fired a barrage of at least 50 rockets and put the toll at five dead – four civilians and a soldier – with 59 people hurt.
Rebels often fire into the Syrian capital from rear bases on the outskirts of Damascus, including at times barrages of hundreds of missiles.
The government regularly carries out air strikes against rebel-held areas on the outskirts of Damascus, particularly Eastern Ghouta which is also under regime siege.
On Wednesday, Amnesty International accused the government of war crimes against Eastern Ghouta residents, saying heavy aerial bombardment was compounding misery created by the blockade.
* Agence France-Presse