Syrian army announces ceasefire in southern Syria until Thursday

BEIRUT- The Syrian army said it would suspend combat operations in southern Syria until Thursday, including in Quneitra province, where Israel has hit army outposts in recent days in reaction to errant fire spilling into Israeli territory, according to a statement carried by Syrian state television.The army general command said the ceasefire took effect from midday (0900 GMT) on Sunday and was being done to support "reconciliation efforts," in the second unilateral ceasefire in the last two weeks.A spokesman for the Southern Front, a coalition of Free Syrian Army rebel groups, cast doubt on whether the Syrian army and its Iranian-backed allies would halt attacks on the front lines in Deraa and in Quneitra province."The Free Syrian Army are very distrustful of the regime's intentions in abiding by the ceasefire. It will be like the previous one," Major Issam al Rayes told Reuters.On June 17, the army announced a ceasefire that only affected fighting in the southern city of Deraa along the border with Israel.The latest announcement extends the ceasefire from Deraa to the whole of southern Syria, including the southwestern Quneitra province near the border with Israel and Sweida province in the southeast.Rebels launched an offensive last week against government-held Baath, the provincial capital of the Syrian Golan Heights. They made initial gains on the southern and western fringes of the city, but an army counterattack mostly pushed the rebels back to their former positions.The Israeli army has also struck several times at Syrian army outposts in the area, where the Iranian-backed Hezbollah has a strong presence, saying it was retaliating for errant fire from Syria's positions there.