BEIRUT — Scattered clashes and reports of a deadly bombing near a Damascus playground marred the first day of a four-day cease-fire in the Syria conflict Friday, but in most parts of the country the level of violence appeared to subside because of the truce, called in deference to the most important Muslim holiday of the year.
With the threat of violence diminished, protesters emerged onto the streets of cities and towns across the country. Syrian state television showed President Bashar Assad making a rare public appearance, attending the morning prayers for the start of the holiday, Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice, in a central Damascus mosque. There was no sound, but Assad was seen chatting amicably with other worshipers.
The most brazen violation appeared to be a car bomb that exploded near what state television said was a children’s playground in southern Damascus. The broadcast showed pictures of a firetruck hosing down building wreckage that the broadcast said was devastation from the bomb. There was significant damage and a number of casualties, the official report said, without being more specific.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the violence from abroad, said the blast killed five people and injured more than 30, including children. The reports said the explosion occurred in Zuhur, a poor, mostly Sunni neighborhood.
The Syrian army announced late Thursday that it would cease military operations from Friday to Monday in observance of the holiday.
The truce was likely to be tested repeatedly, given the splintered nature of fighting across Syria, although the bulk of the opposition seemed to accept respecting it if the government did. The cease-fire was negotiated by Lakhdar Brahimi, the international envoy trying to inaugurate a peace process.
Respect for the cease-fire was uneven, with some reports of fighting filtering in before and after the dawn prayers. Because there was no official deadline for the cease-fire to begin, and no monitors or outside enforcement, its start and stop times were somewhat ad-hoc.
Protests long suppressed by wrenching violence emerged once again onto the streets, calling for Assad’s ouster and in some places for his execution.
The size of the protests themselves, larger and more widespread than they have been for many weeks, was the strongest indication that the truce had made a difference.
