Syria rebels say they’ll go to ‘ends of earth’ to end killings

The head of Syria’s rebel delegation at the peace talks in Kazakhstan says the opposition is “ready to go to the ends of the earth” to end the bloodshed in Syria.

Mohammad Alloush tells reporters, after an hour of indirect talks with government representatives in Astana, that the rebels “are men of peace, and at the same time knights of war.”

Alloush is a political officer for the powerful Army of Islam faction fighting mostly around Damascus.

He attacks President Bashar Assad’s rule, calling it a “terror” state, and says only after the ceasefire becomes a “reality on the ground” can the two sides move on to political talks.

He says the Syrian opposition will also insist at the talks in Astana on the resumption of aid deliveries and other humanitarian demands.

— AP