In response, government-loyal ground troops backed by air support from Russian Federation have been mounting a counterattack there in what appears to be a crucial escalation in the five-year-old Syrian conflict.
Advertisement
The ministry says fighter jets from the Russian base in Syria covered the bombers, which have returned to their base.
“Any pause is good, anything that cuts the violence”, said Trudeau, adding “the United Nations has come out and they’ve said that the three hours are not enough” and Washington supports the United Nations on this.
“A unilaterally declared three-hour cease-fire per day isn’t enough to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe”, he said. “We need 48 hours”.
De Mistura also said that senior military officials from Russian Federation and the USA are still working on restoring an overall ceasefire after five years of civil war that has killed a quarter of a million people and displaced 11-million.
Staffan de Mistura, a United Nations representative in the country, told reporters that there is a lot of evidence that it did take place.
The United Nations said Russian Federation was considering expanding three-hour pauses in fighting every morning to bring in desperately-needed aid.
Kafr Hamra is adjacent to the northern frontline in the deeply divided city of Aleppo, where government troops have sealed the main route into opposition areas, effectively trapping almost 300,000 residents.
In 2013, the BBC found strong evidence suggesting residents of Saraqeb had been subject to a chemical attack by government helicopters, something denied by the Syrian authorities. “Prove that you are the friend of Syrians”, the letter said, according to the BBC. At least one hospital is attacked every 17 hours in the area and doctors are often left with no option but to let children die due to shortage of blood, medical supplies and advanced scanners, the Guardian reported.
The local activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently said the strikes also cut the city’s water supply.
Working against IS “is a priority for all of us”, State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said. Daesh is an Arabic language acronym for the Islamic State group.
Experts have expressed concern that the use of chemical weapons is no longer as shocking as it was a few years ago.
The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to the Associated Press because he is not authorized to give official statements. It had reports of two killed and several people suffering breathing difficulties – but made no mention of chlorine gas.
Cavusoglu also announced that his country will resume its airstrikes against IS targets in Syria, months after they were suspended amid a major row with Moscow.
Erdogan met Tuesday his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, marking the first meeting between the two leaders since Turkey’s downing of a Russian warplane last November.
But rebels and regime forces clashed in southern Aleppo yesterday, including during the period when the pause was meant to take hold, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Advertisement
In late July, four makeshift hospitals and a blood bank in Aleppo city were hit by air raids in a single day.
