Syrian state TV said bulldozers began clearing the road on the northwestern edge of Aleppo that leads into besieged rebel-held neighborhoods to make way for the convoys.
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Castello Road, nicknamed “Death Road” is said to be the only way into rebel-held neighborhoods in eastern Aleppo.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitor, said that government forces and rebel fighters remained on the road after the ceasefire went into effect, and that the army was not willing to pull back before opposition forces did so.
Russian Federation has “decisions to make about the influence that they have on Assad and the degree to which they’re going to use it or not”, Kirby said. The Russian military also claimed that the Syrian opposition has used the truce to regroup and strengthen its forces.
US Secretary of State John Kerry called his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and condemned “repeated and unacceptable delays of humanitarian aid”, spokesman John Kirby said.
Kerry told Lavrov that unless the aid is delivered, the USA will not move ahead with the formation of a joint facility with Russian Federation to coordinate attacks on terrorist groups and share intelligence.
The US and Russian Federation say they want to extend the ceasefire they have brokered in Syria.
Russian Federation complained earlier on Friday that only its ally, the Assad regime, was respecting the ceasefire but they also suggested it be extended by a further 72 hours.
The United States and Russian Federation will brief United Nations Security Council members behind closed doors on Friday, diplomats said, on the deal the pair agreed to try and put Syria’s peace process back on track.
The council is expected to hold those closed talks later on September 16.
As rebels debate whether to continue to observe the cease-fire deal, a Russian official Friday told Britain’s BBC that Moscow could resume airstrikes on rebel groups in Syria unless the USA does more to get them to disassociate themselves from former al-Qaida affiliate Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, previously known as Jabhat al-Nusra. Lavrov has said that Russian Federation would like to publish details of the cease-fire deal he hammered out with Kerry last week but that there are US objections to such a move.
US officials see the cease-fire – the second negotiated this year by Washington and Moscow over the heads of rebel militias – as a possible trigger for subsequent serious negotiations about a political transition for the war-wracked country.
Russia, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said it is prepared to extend the ceasefire, originally set for a week, for three more days.
Those U.S. troops appear to be part of a group of about 40 U.S. Special Forces troops, operating alongside Turkish troops fighting ISIL.
Russia’s military announced Thursday evening that Syrian government forces had begun withdrawing from Castello road but did not confirm if Russian troops would be stationed there. “There are wounded people and others who need food”, he said.
The government blamed the armed opposition of violating the cease-fire in different parts of Syria, including a rocket attack on the government-held side of Aleppo that damaged a church.
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In a separate development, air strikes on Friday reportedly killed 23 civilians and wounded 20 others near Deir Az Zor, an eastern town controlled by ISIL.
