Summary
Major powers agreed Friday to a pause in combat in Syria, but Russia pressed on with its relentless bombing in support of its ally President Bashar Assad, who vowed to fight on until he regains full control of the country.
Russia suggested it might not stop its airstrikes, even when the cessation of hostilities takes effect in a week's time.
The complex, multi-sided civil war in Syria has drawn in most regional and global powers, producing the world's worst humanitarian emergency and attracting extremist recruits from around the world.
The United States has been leading its own air campaign against ISIS fighters since 2014, when that group swept through much of eastern Syria and northern Iraq, declaring a caliphate.
Russia has said Saudi ground troops would make the war last forever.
The main battlefields in the civil war are in the west of the country, far from ISIS's strongholds, where Washington has largely steered clear, leaving the field to Russia which began its air campaign on Sept. 30 last year.
...