The deadline for a U.N.-backed ceasefire aimed at halting more than a year of violence in Syria passed on Thursday with no immediate reports of fighting, activists said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the sound of explosions in the town of Zabadani, close to the border with Lebanon, shortly after the 6 a.m.deadline expired, but said it was not clear what had caused the blasts.
A resident of the town said there had been shelling of the town overnight, but that she heard nothing after the deadline. Other activists in the cities of Hama, Homs and Damascus said the situation was calm.
Syria's Defense Ministry said on Wednesday it would halt operations on Thursday morning, but made no mention of an army pullback from cities and said it would confront "any assault" by armed groups. Attacks on opposition neighborhoods over the last week have fuelled doubts it would comply with the truce.
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Comment: Needless to say, keep an eye on this topic.
One can imagine the defenders have only their limited means. To psychopaths salivating at their prey, the joy of destruction and plundering may be about to begin. Why war, misery, false posturing, deception? How has the more empathic race become sick and willing to do the bidding of these creatures? What do psychopaths, that spend human lives as if they are a commodity, think about humans?
"Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet, you are a plague, and we are the cure." -Agent Smith The Matrix
Think about it.