Syrian army agrees to halt fighting

Damascus reserves right to respond to attacks during Muslim holiday

Syria's army said it will cease military operations on Friday, in line with an internationally backed truce during a Muslim holiday, but that it reserves the right to respond to rebel aggression.

"Military operations will cease on Syrian territory as of Friday morning, until Monday," the army said in a statement read on state television.

"(The military) reserves the right to respond to continuing attacks on civilians and government forces by armed groups."

A rebel fighter is treated for minor wounds during a battle against government soldiers to dislodge a sniper from its position overlooking the two main roads in the neighborhood of Askar, in Syria's northern city of Aleppo, on Wednesday. Javier Manzano / Agence France-Presse

A peace initiative by UN and Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi calls on both sides to observe a truce during the four-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha that begins on Friday.

The rebel Free Syrian Army did not immediately respond to the announcement, but it had been wary of any commitment from the government of President Bashar al-Assad, as was the United States.

If it holds, a cease-fire would mark the first real breakthrough in halting - even temporarily - the 19-month conflict that rights groups say has killed more than 35,000 people.

Shortly before the announcement, there were no signs of a slowdown in the fighting, with rebels moving into a strategically important Kurdish neighborhood in the main battleground city of Aleppo.

A senior United Nations official expressed hope on Thursday that all sides in the Syrian conflict could agree to a cease-fire during the Eid holiday.

"I very much hope that the parties will seize this opportunity to reduce the level of violence and create a climate in which political progress can be made," said UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson.

He also called the Security Council and countries in the region to exert influence on the parties to agree to the cease-fire and encourage the political process forward.

However, he said there were no guarantees that the possible cease-fire would hold, as it would build on trusts that both sides will cease the fighting, while the mandate of UN observers has expired some time ago.

He expressed hope that both sides realize the importance of a pause in the fighting that has been raging for 19 months.

He said there are huge humanitarian problems in Syria which could become even worse. "I hope we will not see this nightmare continue to 2013," Eliasson said, adding that this was not only dangerous for Syrian people, but also for the region and the world.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday voiced support for the cease-fire in Syria while again calling for "political transition" in the violence-plagued Middle East nation.

"We support his call for a cease-fire for the Eid al-Adha holiday so that Syrians could celebrate in peace," Clinton told reporters, referring to Brahimi's proposal.

"We'd like to see the violence come to an end, there's no doubt about this, and we'd like to see a political transition take hold and begin," she said.

Meanwhile, Moscow has considered the stop of violence in Syria as a priority to solve the crisis at the current stage, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday.