THE Syrian government agreed yesterday to a Russian-US truce plan as Saudi-backed militants continued to place conditions on peace.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the proposal late on Monday night following a phone call to his US counterpart Barack Obama.

The plan calls for a “cessation of hostilities” by midnight on Friday between the army and allied forces and the various militant groups fighting them.

But Islamic State (Isis), the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front and other terrorist organisations designated under December’s landmark UN security council resolution 2254 would still be fair game, Mr Putin said.

That leaves the largest two members of the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee (HNC) — Ahrar ash-Sham and the Army of Islam — with the dilemma of either breaking with Nusra in Idlib, Aleppo and elsewhere or facing a refocused Damascus offensive.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry announced yesterday that it had approved the plan, while the HNC gave conditional acceptance.

The day before, President Bashar al-Assad announced parliamentary elections across the country — including in insurgent-held areas — for April 13.

Turkey, which allegedly has links to both Isis and the Nusra Front, claimed to support the ceasefire but threatened to continue shelling the Kurdish YPG militia in northern Aleppo province.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu insisted that the YPG had carried out last week’s bombing in Ankara on the orders of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Isis launched a counter-offensive against the Syrian government on Monday, capturing the town of Khanasser yesterday and cutting the Damascus’s supply line to Aleppo city to the north-east and threatening the Syrian army’s thrust towards al-Tabqah.

But Major-General Suheil al-Hassan’s elite Tiger Forces, fresh from retaking the Aleppo power plants and eliminating the Isis pocket around Rayyan, were yesterday reported to be leading efforts to retake Khanasser for the Assad regime.

Meanwhile, the YPG militia took parts of the Aleppo suburb of Bani Zaid from Nusra Front terrorists.

Isis claimed two suicide attacks against YPG forces that recently liberated the strategic eastern town of al-Shadadi.