BEIRUT — Syrian factions have reached a cease-fire agreement for southern Damascus during a meeting in Cairo, Egypt’s state media reported.
The deal includes opening main crossings and halting the forced displacement of people living in the rebel-held district of Eastern Ghouta, according to the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper.
It quoted Mohamed Alloush, the head of the political department in the Syrian rebel group Jaish al-Islam, as saying that Egypt had pledged to help break the siege on Eastern Ghouta using diplomatic means and allow in aid “in sufficient quantities to alleviate the suffering in the region.”
Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, is one of the last strongholds of rebels fighting President Bashar Assad’s forces and was the scene of a chemical weapon attack that killed hundreds in August 2013.
Late Thursday, at least 18 people were killed when an Islamic State suicide bomber driving a truck blew himself up among a group of refugees in northeast Syria, the head of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told dpa.
The state-run Syrian News Agency said the attack took place in the Abu Fahs region, southwest of al Shadadi, in al-Hassakeh governorate.
The agency said dozens were killed or wounded.
Abdel Rahman said the attack targeted refugees who were fleeing Islamic State areas in the Deir al-Zour province in eastern Syria.
He added that the dead included civilians and members of the Asayish Kurdish police, who mainly control the area that was targeted by the attack.
The fighting has overwhelmed aid agencies as more than 1,000 people per day have been arriving in internal refugee camps around Raqqa in northeastern Syria and Deir al-Zour.
In recent weeks, Russian-supported regime forces and the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have each claimed gains in separate campaigns against Islamic State in Deir al-Zour, which borders Iraq and Raqqa, the de facto capital of the jihadist group.
Meanwhile, the Observatory said a Turkish military convoy had crossed the border in the Kfar Loseen region of the northwestern province of Idlib, and headed to a rural area of western Aleppo.
The convoy was accompanied by members of the al-Qaida-linked Hayat Tahrir al Sham, the Observatory said.
On Sunday, a Turkish military force entered Idlib, a day after Ankara announced an operation in the area.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that a joint military operation with allied Syrian rebels was taking place in the Syrian province “without any problem.”
