Sides allege Syria truce breaches

confirmed any sorties on Sunday and says it has also identified nine breaches of the truce.

A cessation of hostilities was agreed as part of a US-Russian plan. Russia says that in general it is holding. It is the first major cessation of hostilities in the five years of war.

More than 250,000 have been killed in the fight against President Bashar al-Assad.

Millions more have been forced from their homes. Humanitarian agencies are hoping use the truce to deliver aid to besieged areas of the country.

Star presenter Dmitriy Kiselev announced on Sunday night on official channel Rossiya 1 that it was the first time in "many years or even decades" that Russia and the US had acted in concert like this and that their "alliance was as unusual as it was bound to succeed". "As long, of course, as everything is above board," he added.

Previously, state TV had repeatedly suggested the US was to blame for the rise of so-called Islamic State. It has also demonised Washington, accusing it of being hell-bent on world domination and of conspiring, among other things, to overthrow Mr Putin.

Kiselev said Russian diplomacy and military success had forced the US to accept its way of thinking on Syria. He also suggested that the Pentagon was intent on wrecking the peace efforts and was making statements that contradicted President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry.

But for the time being the US is no longer the arch-enemy. That role now appears to belong to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose bellicose plans, Mr Kiselev suggested, had now been thwarted.

Why is there a war in Syria?

Anti-government protests developed into a civil war that four years on has ground to a stalemate, with the Assad government, Islamic State, an array of Syrian rebels and Kurdish fighters all holding territory.

Whats the human cost?

More than 250,000 Syrians have been killed and a million injured. Some 11 million others have been forced from their homes, of whom four million have fled abroad - including growing numbers who are making the dangerous journey to Europe.

How has the world reacted?

Iran, Russia and Lebanons Hezbollah movement are propping up the Alawite-led Assad government, while Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar back the more moderate Sunni-dominated opposition, along with the US, UK and France. Hezbollah and Iran have pro-Assad forces on the ground, while a Western-led coalition and Russia are carrying out air strikes.

Sides allege Syria truce breaches