A United Nations convoy of 20 trucks has crossed the Turkish border into a buffer zone with food and other supplies destined for the rebel-held eastern part of Aleppo, but it has also been held up, though for a different reason: An agreement to separate the forces along the road into the city had yet to take effect, de Mistura said. SANA said the shelling violates the cease-fire. Among them, 160 were children, according to estimates by the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, a London-based watchdog group. The opposition said government forces and their allies bombarded several areas across the country, mostly in Aleppo and the nearby province of Idlib in the north of the country.
Advertisement
“Russia has from the first minute fulfilled its obligations to enforce the cease-fire regime on Syrian territory”, Konashenkov said, according to Russia’s state-run Sputnik News.
“We have repeatedly affirmed that by banning aerial warfare in Syria, the death toll can be decreased by 70 percent”, Abdul-Ghani added.
The Russian military said Saturday the situation in Syria was getting worse, blaming rebels for stepping up attacks and saying the United States would be responsible for a breakdown of the ceasefire.
With the U.S. -Russian brokered cease-fire for the war-torn country holding for its third straight day, calls intensified to have the government permit aid access to besieged opposition areas.
The Syrian army captured the Castello highway two months ago, cutting off the last supply route of the rebels in the eastern part of Aleppo.
One of the most powerful insurgent groups in Aleppo province denied that government forces had withdrawn from the Castello road.
The Observatory said earlier the army was unwilling to pull back until the opposition forces did.
“Humanitarian conditions are very hard”. “Can well-fed, grown men please stop putting political, bureaucratic and procedural roadblocks for fearless humanitarian workers who are willing and able to go to serve women, children, wounded civilians in besieged and crossfire areas”.
“The truce, as we have warned, and we told the [US] state department will not hold out”, the rebel official said, pointing to the continued presence of the United Nations aid convoy at the Turkish border.
“We are not using this window of opportunity so far to reach all of these places with humanitarian assistance”, Egeland said.
However the powerful Nour el-Din el-Zinki opposition group said that government forces were still on the road, the news agency said. Once the seven-day ceasefire ends, the USA military is set to begin intelligence sharing with Russian Federation on ISIS targets in the region.
A ceasefire deal agreed by Washington and Moscow that went into force at sundown on Monday calls for the demilitarization of Castello Road.
Russian Federation backs the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Russian Federation has accused the U.S. of failing to uphold their end of the Syrian ceasefire agreement.
Forty trucks carrying food for 80,000 people were at the Syrian-Turkish border waiting for the green light to go to Aleppo about 44 miles away, said Swanson.
Advertisement
Keaten reported from Geneva.
