Army General Command: Truce in Damascus and Eastern Ghouta extended for 24 hours

Damascus – The General Command of the Army and Armed Forces announced that the truce in Damascus and Eastern Ghouta in Damascus Countryside will be extended for 24 more hours, SANA reported.

In a statement, the General Command said that the truce will be extended for 24 hours in order to not give any pretexts that terrorist groups and their backers can exploit to target civilians.

Earlier on Friday, the General Command said that in order to preserve the cessation of hostilities agreement, a truce will come into effect at 1 AM on April 30, 2016, which covered the areas of Eastern Ghouta and Damascus for 24 hours and the northern countryside of Lattakia for 72 hours.

On a relevant note, Sergei Kuralenko, head of the Hmeimim-based Russian Coordination Center, said in a press statement that the positive results achieved by the truce made it possible to extend it for an extra day in the Eastern Ghouta, pointing out that an active negotiation process is currently underway to enforce a truce in Aleppo.

 Armed groups have breached the cessation of hostilities agreement more than 465 times since it came into effect on February 27th. Most of these violations took place in Aleppo city, Damascus Countryside, and Lattakia countryside, according to the Russian Coordination Center.