REPORT: US-Russian ceasefire deal holding in southwest Syria

A U.S.-Russian brokered ceasefire for southwest Syria was holding more than nine hours after it took effect on Sunday, a monitor and rebels said, in the latest international attempt at peace-making in the six-year war.
 
The United States, Russia and Jordan reached the ceasefire and "de-escalation agreement" this week with the aim of paving the way for a broader, more robust truce.
 
The announcement came after a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit of major economies in Germany.
 
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitoring group, said "calm was prevailing" with no air strikes or clashes in the southwest since the truce began at noon (0900 GMT) on Sunday.
 
"The situation is relatively calm," said Suhaib al-Ruhail, a spokesman for the Alwiyat al-Furqan rebel faction in the Quneitra area.
 
Major Issam al Rayes, spokesman of the Southern Front coalition of Western-backed rebel groups, said "a cautious calm" continued into the evening.
 
Another rebel official, in Deraa city, said there had been no significant fighting. It was quiet on the main Manshiya front near the border with Jordan, which he said had been the site of some of the heaviest army bombing in recent weeks.
 
A Syrian official indicated that Damascus approved of the ceasefire deal, describing the government's silence over it as a "sign of satisfaction".
 
"We welcome any step that would cease the fire and pave the way for peaceful solutions," the government official told Reuters.
 
A witness in Deraa said he had not seen warplanes in the sky or heard any fighting since noon.