“The worldwide community and the global media is so concerned about the humanitarian situation in Syria, about accusing Russian Federation of doing this or that and they paid no attention to what’s going on just on the Turkish-Syrian border, what the Turks are doing and the humanitarian situation there – it’s a disaster”.
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“They will try to increase its strength to 70,000-80,000 men with 300-350 tanks and the appropriate number of artillery pieces, which will include multiple launch rocket systems, the expert said”.
De Mistura refused to speak with reporters upon his arrival in Damascus on Monday evening for a one-day visit.
The U.N. envoy arrived in the Syrian capital Monday for discussions on aid deliveries and resuming peace talks in Geneva.
The carnage occurred as Russian-backed Syrian troops intensified their push toward the rebel stronghold of Aleppo.
The UN statement indicated the range of civilian targets was far broader, and the death toll much higher, than originally reported from the region.
The UNICEF humanitarian group said that four medical facilities in total were hit: two in Aleppo and two in Idlib, two of which it supported.
The ruins of a hospital in Idlib province in northern Syria are seen in this image provided by Doctors Without Borders Feb. 15 2016. The strikes in Azaz hit near a hospital, it said.
Also ahead of a hoped-for ceasefire, Kurdish fighters in northern Syria captured a key town despite Turkish cross-border shelling, a monitor said, as Ankara and Moscow traded accusations over their military entanglement in the conflict.
The official ruled out Turkey entering Syria on its own and stressed that such an operation would only take place as a coordinated effort with the United States and other allies. Tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing the fighting have headed for the Turkey border. It says nine people were killed, including a nurse and eight civilians.
The Turkish prime minister also said the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the armed forces of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) of Syrian Kurds, will not be allowed to advance on Azez town in the neighbouring country, declaring it a red line for Turkey.
At least 14 people also died in strikes on a children’s hospital and a school in the rebel-held town of Azaz in northwestern Syria on Monday, Reuters reported.
“We will not allow the fall of Azaz”.
Turkey described its cross-border shelling as a retaliatory measure.
Lavrov, as he has done before, shrugged off criticism about Russian military actions in Syria as lies and propaganda.
The Observatory and al-Halaby said an air raid struck a school in the village of Kaljibrin, near Azaz.
Up to 50 civilians were killed in the strikes in Aleppo and Idlib provinces, United Nations spokesman Farhan Haq said in NY on Monday. Many Syrian sources have suggested that the bombing was carried out either by Russian troops or Syrian regime forces. This is not the first time the aid organisation, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), has had its centres destroyed by airstrikes.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights blamed Russian warplanes, but Dmitry Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, denied the accusation Tuesday.
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“If (the rebels) lose Kansaba everything in Latakia will go to the regime”, said Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.
