Fighting has erupted in Syria in the first violation of a ceasefire honoring the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha, a human rights group said. Rebel fighters reportedly tried to storm a military base near a highway linking Damascus and Aleppo.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed that rebels had laid siege to a military base one kilometer from the highway, and that government forces had opened fire in a nearby village.

A tenuous truce was called into effect hours earlier on Friday morning following an agreement between the Assad government and the rebels to observe a four-day ceasefire in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi proposed the truce after visiting Syria earlier this week in the hopes of creating what he called “a political environment where political talks are possible.

”The ceasefire seemed doomed to fail from the start, as both the government and the rebels began setting numerous conditions shortly after the truce was announced.The Free Syrian Army said that its fighters would not commit to a ceasefire unless detained rebels were released from custody on Friday.

Meanwhile, the Assad government said it reserved the right to retaliate against any violence by opposition forces during the truce. Damascus also said it would respond to any attempts to smuggle weapons across Syria’s borders, and would take measures to prevent ‘terrorists’ from entering the country.

http://rt.com/news/syria-ceasefire-fighting-eid-286/