At 06:00 local/03:00 GMT today (10/4/12) the deadline for the Syrian government to; "Commit to stop the fighting and achieve urgently an effective United Nations supervised cessation of armed violence in all it's forms by all parties to protect civilians and stabilise the country" came into effect.
However as the Saudi Irregular Army (SIA) are not bound by this ceasefire until Thursday (12/4/12) the violence continues across Syria with the SIA killing six Syrian soldiers in the north eastern province of Hassakeh.
There have though been four credible reports of Syrian forces breaching the ceasefire. These are a helicopter rocket attack in Idlib and shelling/mortar fire in Homs, Hama and Aleppo. However the only incident I have enough information to comment on with any degree of certainty is the incident in Homs. There they experienced a short (30mins) barrage of light (82mm) mortar fire at around 08:30local/05:30GMT. The last reported incident was the single rocket fired from a helicopter gunship in Idlib at around 12:00local/09:00GMT. I should point out though that when ceasefires are called there is rarely an expectation that all fighting will cease the moment it comes into effect. This is because there will always be communication problems between military units spread out across a wide area. Also throughout the conflict the Syrian army has experienced defections so there is a possibility that local military commanders are deliberately disobeying orders because their loyalties really lie with the SIA. As a result the United Nations has indicated that it will not be considering Syrian forces to be in breach until 18:00local/15:00GMT.
Therefore I am pleased to report that as of 12:00local/09:00GMT the Syrian government appear to be wholly compliant with the peace plan. As a result western powers are being forced to resort to criticising the Syrian government for not doing things they haven't agreed to do. So following in that vein I would like to take the opportunity to condemn the Syrian government for not re-introducing unicorns.
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