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Syrian military declares end to week-old cease-fire

A convoy delivering aid to Syrians in Aleppo province was hit by an air strike, leaving 12 dead hours after the Syrian military declared an end to a week-long ceasefire, monitors and the United Nations said.

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Russian Federation has repeatedly called on the USA to push units of moderate Syrian opposition to separate from Islamic State and other “terrorist groups”.

The agreement is the second ceasefire negotiated by Washington and Moscow this year in the hope of advancing a political end to a war now in its sixth year, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people.

On Sunday, Syrian state media reported that scores of residents of Aleppo had left the rebel-held areas and were taken to shelters in the government-held areas.

A man walks near a hole in the ground after an airstrike on Sunday in the rebel-held town of Dael, in Deraa Governorate, Syria September 19, 2016.

After the incident, the United States said it may have unintentionally struck Syrian troops while carrying out a raid against the Islamic State group.

As seen in Aleppo in the past week, sometimes rebels inside besiged towns and cities also prevent citizens from leaving, or block aid deliveries.

An AFP correspondent in Aleppo s Karam al-Jabal district saw several wounded children after a raid.

The Observatory said a total of 36 people had died in the violence across the battleground region.

SANA quotes an unnamed military official as saying Sunday that dozens of IS fighters were killed in the offensive under the cover of Syrian airstrikes. He says that amid the rebel violations, “it has become meaningless for the Syrian government forces to unilaterally observe the cease-fire”.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group with contacts across Syria, cited a military source as saying at least 90 Syrian soldiers had been killed in the strikes on the eastern Syrian city of Deir al-Zor.

Washington passed on its “regret” to Damascus via the Russians for the unintentional strike on personnel belonging to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

A seven-day ceasefire declared by the Syrian army expired at midnight, with no announcement of its extension on Monday.

Opposition fighters and activists have accused Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s regime of violating the agreement.

The US military said in a statement that the air force “had earlier informed Russian counterparts of the upcoming strike”, but that the Russian military did not provide the information about the Syrian military position until the airstrikes had already begun.

“While Syria remains a dynamic and complex operating environment, Australia would never intentionally target a known Syrian military unit or actively support (Islamic State)”, Defence earlier said in a statement.

The incident occurred in East Syria against a Daesh fighting position that coalition forces had been tracking for some time, she said. Russian Federation called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, a meeting which itself rapidly turned into a fiasco as U.S. officials loudly condemned Russian Federation for calling it. “Otherwise the implementation of the entire package of the US-Russian accords reached in Geneva on September 9 may be jeopardised”.

Churkin called the strike a “bad omen” for the US-Russia deal to halt Syria’s war, which has killed more than 300,000 people since it erupted in 2011.

The military said the rebels squandered a “real chance” to end the country’s civil war, which is now in its sixth year.

Abu Mohamed al-Jolani told Al-Jazeera negotiations were under way for anti-regime groups to band together in a single organisation.

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Ghasemi went on to add, “not only is the American forces’ attack on Syrian army’s positions of no help to the process of combating terrorism and establishing stability in the country, but also it is a threat to the proclaimed ceasefire”.

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