Russia urges Syrian rebels to separate from 'terrorists'

The two-day truce was the first step of a proposed seven-day truce.

If the truce holds for seven days, Russian Federation and the USA will discuss setting up a joint command to target groups considered terrorist by both sides, including the Islamic State and the Nusra Front.

Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry agreed to a package of arrangements in Geneva on Friday that includes the possibility of creating a center to isolate terrorist groups from other armed factions which Washington describes as the moderate opposition.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said: "There was agreement that as a whole, despite sporadic reports of violence, the arrangement is holding, and violence is significantly lower".

Poznikhir said Wednesday that Moscow backs the extension of the truce for another 48 hours.

He added that rebels had violated the ceasefire 60 times since it came into force on Monday.

He says he has also been in touch with the Americans to get Syrian armed groups to cooperate.

September 2013: Kerry and Lavrov negotiate a deal to strip the Syrian government of its chemical weapons in return for the USA backing away from air strikes.

These incidents caused material damage and some injuries, but no deaths, it said on Wednesday.

"The battle against IS is continuing".

Staffan de Mistura, the United Nations special envoy for Syria, said Tuesday night that there was a "need of assurances that the drivers and the convoys will be unhindered and untouched".

Two convoys of aid which crossed the Turkish border destined for the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo were waiting in no-man's land on Wednesday.

This makes it hard for them to go against whatever their foreign allies want them to do politically. The Turkish official said no further trucks were expected to cross the border on Wednesday until the situation became clearer.

The UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, told a news briefing yesterday there had been "a significant drop in violence".

The apparent deadlock in aid deliveries further complicated the already fragile truce brokered between Washingon and Moscow.

The deal crafted by the US and Russian Federation to halt the Syrian civil war and focus efforts on rooting out extremists is rife with legal and liability questions that are fueling Pentagon skepticism about military cooperation between the two powers, senior USA officials said. Aleppo-based activist Baraa al-Halaby said no aid deliveries, which are also part of the cease-fire deal, had yet entered the contested area. Regime strongman Bashar al-Assad gave a creepy speech in which he pledged to recover control of the entire country (and since he runs secret police that specialize in torturing political prisoners, he does mean control). The UN wanted to make sure the trucks go through unhindered by the regime and unthreatened by the opposition.

"I'm hopeful but I'm very realistic about what is before us", he added.

"If an opposition group decides it doesn't want to be part of the cessation and wants to carry out attacks on the regime, then they take themselves out of the cessation of hostilities".

The Syrian Kurds announced they were adhering to the truce yesterday, though not, presumably, when it comes to fighting Isis, which is excluded from the ceasefire.

Insurgent groups have expressed misgivings about the cease-fire, which would allow for strikes against a powerful al-Qaida-linked group that fights alongside the rebels.

But he said the United Nations was still waiting for Damascus to issue letters authorizing the deliveries.

"The truce is good, but it's not enough".

Israel said its aircraft attacked a Syrian army position after a stray mortar bomb struck the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, a now-routine Israeli response to the occasional spillover from the war.

Secretary of State John Kerry cautioned that this cease-fire might be Syria's last chance to remain together as a single country. It also reported shelling near the Castello road, northwest of the city, and the Ramouseh area in the south - both main arteries leading to Aleppo. The city, Syria's biggest before the civil war that broke out in 2011, is now divided, and its rebel-held area is besieged by government forces.

Under the deal, the United States and Russian Federation are aiming for reduced violence over seven consecutive days before they move to the next stage of coordinating military strikes against Nusra Front and Islamic State militants, which are not party to the truce.

The U.S. and Russian Federation can each withdraw from the arrangement. Once the first strikes occur, all Syrian military air activities must be halted in agreed areas.

"They are at the border with Syria".