DUBAI – Hopes of a truce being implemented in war-torn Syria during this week’s Eid Al-Adha are “slim,” the Arab League said Monday, as heavy fighting erupted in Damascus and on northern battlefields.



UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi had Sunday indicated a favorable response to his appeal to both sides of the Syrian conflict to observe a truce during the four-day holiday, which begins Friday.



But Arab League Deputy Secretary General Ahmed Ben Helli said Monday that there is little chance of such a truce coming into effect.



“Unfortunately, hope for implementing the truce during Eid Al-Adha is slim so far,” Ben Helli said on the sidelines of the World Energy Forum in Dubai.



“The signs, both on the ground and by the government... do not point to the presence of any real will” to implement a ceasefire, he said.



Even as Ben Helli spoke, fierce fighting raged across Syria, including around Damascus, the northern city of Aleppo and the rebel-held town of Maaret Al-Numan in the northwest province of Idlib. Reports also emerged of the abduction of two regime officials from Daraa in the south.



Brahimi said a truce during Eid Al-Adha could allow the start of a more permanent peace initiative.



“This is a call to every Syrian, on the street, in the village, fighting in the regular army and its opponents, for them to take a unilateral decision to stop hostilities,” he said Sunday.



Brahimi said he contacted political opposition leaders inside and outside Syria and armed groups in the country and “found them to be very favorable” to the idea of a truce.



On the ground, there was no sign Monday of a let-up in the violence. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said clashes erupted in the morning when troops tried to storm the rebel-controlled town of Harasta on the northeastern outskirts of Damascus.



It also said Syrian soldiers fought pitched battles with rebels near Maaret Al-Numan and around an army base in nearby Wadi Daif, in Idlib province. – AFP