BEIRUT
The Latest on developments in Syria where a cease-fire brokered by the U.S. and Russia has come into effect (all times local):
10:35 a.m.
The Syrian military says its forces have shot down two Israeli aircraft — a warplane and a drone — near the Israeli-controlled part of the Golan Heights.
The report came as a U.S.-Russia-brokered truce appeared to be holding in Syria on Tuesday, after coming into effect the night before.
The Israeli military quickly denied the Syrian claim. It says that “two surface-to-air missiles were launched from Syria after the mission overnight to target Syrian artillery positions” but that the safety of Israeli planes was not compromised.
The Syrian military statement, reported by the state news agency SANA and state TV, says the Israeli plane was shot down during Israeli air raids on Syrian army positions early on Tuesday. A drone was shot down as well nearby.
Israeli warplanes have conducted several air raids on Syrian army positions over the past weeks after stray shells hit the Israeli-occupied area.
Syria and Israel have been at a state of war for decades. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war
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10 a.m.
Syrian opposition activists and monitoring groups say the cease-fire in Syria appears to be holding since coming into effect the previous night, despite sporadic and minor violations.
Rami Abdurrahman from the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says “calm is prevailing” in most of the country on Tuesday, though there were minor violations in central Hama province.
Another activist group, the Local Coordination Committees reported some shelling in Aleppo and the southern region of Quneitra, while state media said there were “breaches” of the truce by rebels in the contested city of Aleppo.
Ahmad al-Masalmeh, an opposition activist in the southern province of Daraa — where Syria’s crisis began in 2011 — says the region was also calm.
The week-long, U.S.- and Russia-brokered cease-fire started at sunset Monday.
Dantheman