Mediator: Syria agrees to Eid holiday truce

[NewsCaster]

Fabio Bucciarelli / AFP - Getty ImagesAn elderly Syrian woman crosses a street next to a long black cloth used to separate the area from Syrian government forces' snipers fire, in the Bab el-Adid district in Aleppo, on Tuesday. By NBC News wire servicesSyria has agreed to a ceasefire during the short Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which begins Friday, international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi told a Cairo news conference Wednesday.

Brahimi, appointed by the United Nations and Arab League, said some Syrian opposition groups he had been in contact with had also agreed to a truce in principle.

Brahimi didn't elaborate on how such a truce would be monitored. Reporting from Syria is difficult and claims made by either side are almost impossible to verify.

Eid al-Adha – the feast of the sacrifice - starts on October 26 in the 2012 Gregorian calendar and lasts up to four days.

 “After the visit I made to Damascus, there is agreement from the Syrian government for a ceasefire during the Eid,'' Brahimi told a news conference at the Cairo-based League.

NBCNews