An agreement has been reached with Russian Federation to extend a ceasefire in Syria to Aleppo province, including the besieged city of Aleppo, the US State Department said.
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The truce went into effect at midnight Wednesday, U.S. officials said, though the Syrian Arab News Agency reported it was to start at 1 a.m Thursday.
Fighting has been especially intense in and around Syria’s devastated second city of Aleppo, with more than 280 civilians killed since April 22.
Under a new cease-fire arrangement, United States and Russian military officials “will be sitting at the same table” at a coordination center in Geneva to monitor and document any violations of the truce, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday in a news conference from Moscow with the UN’s envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura.
Ending an upsurge of violence around Aleppo, Syria’s most populous city and main commercial hub before the war, is crucial to restoring a broader truce brokered in February by Russian Federation and the U.S. Syrian rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have traded rockets and bombs across Aleppo and its outskirts for nearly two weeks in clashes that have escalated.
Russia, an ally of Assad, will be charged with ensuring that his government abides by the terms of the ceasefire, Toner said, while the US does its part with rebel groups trying to unseat him.
Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov gave no details Wednesday about how many aircraft remained, saying only that it was precisely the number necessary for fighting the Islamic State group and the Syrian al-Qaida affiliate known as the Nusra Front.
According to experts, the future of the ceasefire in Syria now depends on whether it will be possible to halt military escalation in Aleppo or not.
The Russian Foreign Minister said such demands by the US were rejected but a deal on including Aleppo in truce was close.
Two top United Nations officials told the Security Council Wednesday that those responsible for hospital attacks and starvation sieges in Syria s frontline city of Aleppo should face trial for war crimes.
The UN said the Syrian government had refused a request for aid access to Aleppo.
Three people were killed on Wednesday in renewed shelling by Syrian rebels of government-held areas in Aleppo.
Hospitals in both rebel and government-held areas of Aleppo have been hit, triggering global outrage and calls for an end to the fighting. The monitoring rights group also said Islamist rebel groups were behind the shelling.
State TV said government troops repelled an overnight rebel attack on an Aleppo suburb controlled by the government.
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In Berlin, the German and French foreign ministers said achieving a ceasefire in Aleppo was critical to renewing peace talks.
