Despite the truce called between the Syrian government and the rebels in honor of the most important Muslim holiday of the year, Id al-Adha, both sides have resumed fighting and accused the other side of breaking the cease-fire. The rebels blamed the government of aerial bombardments and shelling urban centers, while SANA, the official news agency of the country, reported many violations on the rebels' side. Rebel groups outside of the Free Syrian Army claimed from the beginning that they had no intentions of adhering to the truce (Mourtada).
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the most serious violation of the truce when a government warplane attacked a residential building in Arbeen, a suburb of Damascus. Eight men were killed when the missiles struck. Additionally, the government shelled several towns around Aleppo and Idlib and near the airport. "There is a clear breach of the truce," said Ahmad Kadour, an activist in Idlib (Mourtada). .
Government forces also moved convoys of reinforcements to Wadi al-Deif, a military base that recently experienced fighting. Rebel commanders initially opposed the truce because they believed the government forces would use the downtime to resupply their outposts that the rebels had managed to take over recently. "Free Army battalions are still struggling to prevent the arrival of these reinforcements to Idlib and to recover their territorial gains," said Kadour (Mourtada). .
Another activist agreed that the fighting had gotten worse. "There are regime snipers shooting at us from several fronts, and the city remains under siege, as it had been for 131 days," said Abu Bilal. "This siege alone is considered a military operation, so with or without the truce, this criminal regime obviously does not care" (Mourtada). .
Rebel fighters planted car bombs near military headquarters and in front of the Syrian Orthodox Church. Government forces responded with firefights and aerial attacks.
