Truce brings 'significant drop' in fighting

The UN's Syria envoy on Tuesday applauded a "significant drop" in violence through the first 24 hours of a fragile ceasefire but said security concerns meant aid convoys stayed on hold.

The truce brokered by Russia and the United States began at sundown on Monday, in the latest bid to end a conflict that has killed more than 300,000 people since March 2011.

The agreement aims to bring an end to fighting between President Bashar al-Assad's loyalists and a wide range of rebels but excludes jihadist forces like the Islamic State (IS) group.