On Wednesday, the regime of Bashar al-Assad announced the end to military operations and on Thursday morning three hours after the start of the cease-fire, the situation was reportedly calm.
No major violations of the ease-fire were reported. The Syrian army, however, has still not withdrawn its troops as stipulated in the plan of UN and the Arab League envoy to Syria Kofi Annan, according to a Syrian opposition NGO.
The Syrian regime announced on Wednesday the ending of its military operations. It nevertheless warned that its forces would respond to any "terrorist" attack. The insurgents, meanwhile, already said they would respect the deadlines set by the plan.
Before the announcement of Damascus, several Western countries had expressed their weariness with the Syrian regime, who had not withdrawn its tanks from major cities on Tuesday, violating the first phase of the Annan Plan. U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, whose country chairs the Security Council in April, pleaded in favor of "collective action" to increase pressure on Damascus for its non-compliance with the ceasefire fire .
Yet a few hours ahead of the scheduled truce, massively deployed forces in some areas, led to new operations, killing 11 civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights.
