He appeared to be referring to the Fatah al-Sham Front, an al-Qaida-linked group previously known as the Nusra Front, which is deeply embedded in rebel-held areas and fights alongside more moderate groups.
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Forty trucks carrying desperately-needed relief for the divided city of Aleppo waited Friday at a checkpoint at the Turkish border, and the US blamed the Syrian government for the holdup.
“We are still gathering information at this time but we have been able to confirm that earlier today, the United States struck what we believe to be an ISIL target”, Power said, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State.
“It is not possible for the party (Russia) that wages war against a people to strive to achieve a truce, as it is also not possible for it to be a sponsor of this agreement while it bombs night and day, while on the other side, the other party – America – has the role of spectator”, he said.
The cease-fire took effect on Monday, and despite reports of violations, it has largely held.
But Mikhail Kasyanov, leader of Russian opposition PARNAS party, told DW that “massive violations” had also been reported elsewhere, including in the capital.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov echoed Putin’s remarks during a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
The ceasefire was supposed to pave the way for aid shipments into besieged rebel-held areas of Aleppo, but convoys have yet to enter.
Russian Federation is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government and has been carrying out airstrikes on behalf of his forces since previous year.
Officials in Washington and Moscow on Friday expressed a desire to extend the cease-fire pact and confirmed aid deliveries had not yet begun, but agreed on little else concerning the tenuous situation in the war-torn country. Lavrov noted the “refusal by an array of illegal armed groups to join the cease-fire”, and Washington’s obligation to “separate units of the moderate opposition from terrorist groupings”, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.
The Syrian government says insurgents have been firing on routes leading into the northern city of Aleppo, endangering United Nations efforts to deliver aid to besieged, rebel-held neighborhoods.
But Washington has warned Russian Federation that unless aid is delivered to Aleppo, it will not move ahead with the formation of the joint coordination center. It says two men were killed outside Damascus and a child was killed in Aleppo province.
The Syrian government said it has done all that is necessary to facilitate the entry of aid convoys to Aleppo, but that armed groups have failed to withdraw from the supply routes and are committing “dangerous, provocative acts”.
The Syrian military called the bombing a “serious and blatant aggression” against Syrian forces, and said it was “conclusive evidence” that the United States and its allies support IS militants.
But rebel leaders say they expect the cease-fire to collapse and do not believe Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – or his foreign backers, Russian Federation and Iran – have any desire to negotiate a political settlement.
Syria’s state news agency SANA says insurgents have violated the cease-fire 12 times in the last 12 hours.
Elections commission head Ella Pamfilova was later quoted by Russian news agencies as saying complaints had not been received from other regions.
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Almost five million Syrians have fled the country and some 6.5 million have been internally displaced during the more than five-year conflict, contributing to the record 65.3 million people who were uprooted worldwide last year.
