Activist group the Qudsaya Media Team confirmed the truce in a statement but gave few details. In an earlier November release, they said local markets ran out of food, and area's poorest residents were going hungry.

People in many parts of Syria are held captive in small towns and villages, especially in areas near capital and Aleppo, which is the main stronghold for militants.

Syria militants who are composed of hundreds of different armed groups with different nationalities, some loyal to terrorist al-Qaeda, hold the residents in towns to use them as human shields for deterring Syrian army improvements.

There have been several reports of deaths resulted by starvation in Aleppo.

In recent weeks, a variety of Syrian mediators have been trying to ease blockades in several areas, with modest success.

The truce comes as the main Western-backed Syrian opposition began the second day of a two-day meeting in the Turkish capital Istanbul to decide whether they will attend a proposed peace conference in Geneva by the end of this year.

Syria militants are facing deep divisions and rivalries with, every now and then, several of them pledging alliance to each other to form independent armies.

On Thursday, al-Qaeda leader Aymen Zawahiri who has the strongest militant groups on the ground in Syria fighting alongside the US-backed opposition urged all armed groups to be united and overthrow the Syrian government and set up their own ruling system.

SHI/SHI