Syria cease-fire holding, only minor violations reported

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad, center, walks on a street with officials after performing the morning Eid al-Adha prayers in Daraya, a blockaded Damascus suburb, Syria, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Syrian President Bashar Assad says his government is determined to "reclaim every area from the terrorists, and to rebuild" the country. His remarks came just hours ahead of the start of a cease-fire brokered by the United States and Russia. (SANA via AP) (The Associated Press)

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Lt.-Gen. Sergei Rudskoi, center, of the Russian Military General Staff listens to Russian and Syrian officers during a video call, as a Syrian army facility is displayed on screen, at a Russian Defense Ministry building in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Rudskoi said that the Russian military will continue strikes against the Islamic State group and the al-Qaida's branch in Syria in coordination with the United States even as a cease-fire brokered by Moscow and Washington goes into effect Monday. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko) (The Associated Press)

BEIRUT – Syrian opposition activists and monitoring groups say the cease-fire in Syria appears to be holding since coming into effect the previous night, despite sporadic and minor violations.

Rami Abdurrahman from the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says "calm is prevailing" in most of the country on Tuesday, though there were minor violations in central Hama province.

Another activist group, the Local Coordination Committees reported some shelling in Aleppo and the southern region of Quneitra, while state media said there were "breaches" of the truce by rebels in the contested city of Aleppo.

Ahmad al-Masalmeh, an opposition activist in the southern province of Daraa — where Syria's crisis began in 2011 — says the region was also calm.

The week-long, U.S.- and Russia-brokered cease-fire started at sunset Monday.