Just hours after Russia announced that a ceasefire in the Syrian city of Aleppo had gone into effect, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that a handful of barrel bombs had been dropped on al-Qaeda-held parts of the city.
This has been a recurring problem with ceasefires in Aleppo, as neither the Syrian government nor al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front seems to abide by any of the local deals for more than a few hours at a time, and seem to quickly go back to trading fire.
Civil defense officials in the area reported that the bombs had caused fires in the area, and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reported that the strikes had taken one of their hospitals “out of service,” though it was unclear if the hospital was actually hit or just left inaccessible.
Despite some pretty big early problems surrounding these barrel bombs, Russia’s Defense Ministry insisted that the ceasefire was “mostly” holding, and that only four violations had been reported as of yet.