Page 2 - Aruba Today
P. 2
A2
UP FRONTMonday 29 February 2016
French Cuisine
Daily chef’s specials
Exclusive wines
Free WIFI
Located at The Village (across from Radisson)
T: +297 586 5400 | www.papillonaruba.com|
Open daily from 5 pm – 10.30 pm
Amid cease-fire: SE Asia ministers
voice concerns on
Opposition activists report airstrikes in northern Syria South China Seas
BASSEM MROUE reported that the shelling abiding by the truce. planes are based. JERRY HARMER
Associated Press killed and wounded a num- “The repeated violations On Saturday, members of Associated Press
BEIRUT (AP) — Warplanes ber of people, without giv- by the regime and its allies the Islamic State group at- VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) —
carried out air raids Sunday ing further details. have killed 29 and wound- tacked the border town of Foreign ministers from the
on several parts of north- Opposition activists and ed dozens,” he said, add- Tal Abyad and the nearby 10 countries of the As-
ern Syria as a top opposition state media also reported ing that the opposition is village of Suluk that were sociation of South East
official warned that contin- clashes between troops abiding by the cease-fire captured months ago by Asian Nations said over the
ued violations of a fragile weekend that they were
cease-fire could jeopardize A Syrian boy covers his face as he rides a bicycle through a devastated part of the old city of “seriously concerned” by
a planned resumption of Homs, Syria. Warplanes carried out air raids Sunday on several parts of northern Syria as a top recent developments in
U.N.-brokered peace talks. opposition official warned that continued violations of a fragile cease-fire could jeopardize a the disputed SouthChi-
The acts of violence came planned resumption of U.N.-brokered peace talks. na Sea region and will seek
as Russia said a northern a meeting over the issue
town held by a predomi- (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar) with China.
nantly Kurdish militia came At the end of their annual
under fire from the Turkish and members of the Islam- and warning that “resum- Kurdish fighters, according retreat, held this year in the
side of the border. ic State group mostly in the ing the negotiations pro- to a Syrian rebel official. Lao capital of Vientiane,
Sunday’s air raids came on northern province of Alep- cess in such circumstances Hours-long battles between they noted their worries
the second day of a cease- po. Still, both sides have would be difficult.” Kurdish fighters and IS mili- and reaffirmed the im-
fire brokered by Russia and said they will continue to The U.N. Special Envoy tants forced them out of Tal portance of maintaining
the U.S., the most ambitious abide by the truce. to Syria Staffan de Mistura Abyad and other areas de- peace, security and stabil-
effort yet to curb the vio- Also Sunday, Riad Hijab, has called for a new round spite some presence of the ity in the area.
lence of the country’s five- who heads the High Ne- of indirect peace talks in extremists on the outskirts of The strategically important
year civil war. The truce has gotiations Committee, an Geneva on March 7, after the border town. South China Sea is at the
been holding since it went umbrella for opposition the first round of talks col- The Observatory said the center of a territorial dis-
into effect at midnight Fri- and rebel factions, said in lapsed earlier this month. battle of Tal Abyad lasted pute involving China on
day despite accusations by a statement directed to Meanwhile, the Russian mil- a full day and left 70 IS fight- one side and a number
both sides of violations. U.N. chief Ban Ki-Moon that itary operating in Syria said ers, 20 Kurdish fighters and of ASEAN countries on the
The Britain-based Syrian Ob- Russian, Iranian and gov- it has information about an 10 civilians dead. other, including Vietnam,
servatory for Human Rights ernment forces have not attack on the Syrian bor- The head of the center. Lt. the Philippines and Malay-
said the airstrikes hit the vil- stopped hostilities since the der town of Tal Abyad from Gen Sergei Kuralenko, said sia. Tensions have ramped
lages of Daret Azzeh and truce went into effect. Turkish territories with the Sunday that the suspected up since China began a
Qobtan al-Jabal in Aleppo Hijab said there has been use of large-caliber artillery violation took place over- massive land reclamation
province. The group did not 24 cases of shelling and five and has asked the United night and his center has program in 2013. Recent
say whether the warplanes cases of ground attacks. States for an explanation. turned to the correspond- satellite imagery suggests
were Russian or Syrian. He added that Russian Russia has set up a center ing U.S. center in Amman that China has installed
The Local Coordination warplanes carried out 26 for monitoring the truce at for an explanation, since surface-to-air missiles in a
Committees said the war- airstrikes on Sunday alone the Hemeimeem air base Turkey is a member of the disputed area in the Para-
planes were Russian. targeting rebels that are in Syria, where Russian war- U.S.-led coalition,q cels chain, prompting ac-
The Observatory and the cusations that Beijing is mili-
LCC also reported air raids tarizing the area.
on the northwestern town A joint statement said the
of Jisr al-Shughour saying a ASEAN foreign ministers
woman was killed and 12 “remained seriously con-
others were wounded. cerned over recent and
It was not immediately ongoing developments
clear if the warplanes struck and took note of the con-
areas controlled by al-Qai- cerns expressed by some
da’s branch in Syria, known members on the land
as the Nusra Front. Both the reclamations and esca-
Nusra Front and the Islamic lation of activities” in the
State group are excluded South China Sea.
from the truce. The statement added that
Meanwhile Syria’s state the activities have “erod-
news agency said mili- ed trust and confidence,
tants fired shells into gov- increased tensions and
ernment-held areas in the may undermine peace,
coastal province of Latakia security and stability in the
from their bases near the region.q
Turkish border. The agency
