Syrian ceasefire breaks down over holiday

The Eid al-Adha truce has largely fallen in Syria with both sides violating the ceasefire brokered by U.N. and Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi. According to the opposition activist Local Coordination Committees, Syrian government air raids have killed 14 civilians in the northern Idlib province town of Bara. Opposition activists and residents have reported government air raids over the Damascus suburbs of Zamalka, Irbin, Harasta, and Barzah. Syrian warplanes also attacked opposition held areas in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour, and the northern province of Aleppo. Meanwhile, Free Syrian Army fighters reportedly attacked Syrian military roadblocks in the Damascus suburb of Douma and in Aleppo. Fighting was also reported between opposition fighters and Kurdish militiamen in the mainly Christian and Kurdish Aleppo neighborhood of Ashrafieh killing at least 22 people. According to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 110 people were killed across Syria on Sunday. On Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed deep disappointment over the collapse of the ceasefire and called for greater assistance from the United Nations and the international community to end the violence in Syria, which has now spanned over 19 months.

Headlines  

• Dozens of people have been killed in a wave of attacks across Iraq over the weekend’s Eid al-Adha holiday.
• The Egyptian brokered unofficial truce between Israel and Gaza has broken down with rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and Israeli airstrikes on several suspected militant targets.
• An Iranian member of parliament has announced that Iran has pictures of "sensitive bases" in Israel transmitted from a Hezbollah drone shot down in Israel earlier this month.