Officials said the United Nations and Red Crescent convoy was hit while en route to deliver assistance for 78,000 people in the rebel-held town of Uram al-Kubra, west of the northern city of Aleppo.
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Stephen O’Brien, the head of the UN’s relief organization, said he was “disgusted” by the reports and that the strike would amount to a war crime if it’s discovered that aid workers were deliberately targeted. But according to rescue workers on the ground, it was Russian warplanes, as well as Syrian government helicopters, that carried out the deadly airstrikes on the humanitarian convoy.
It was not clear who was behind the attack late on Monday, which sent a red fireball into the sky over a rural area in western Aleppo province.
The Observatory said a total of 36 people had died in the violence across the battleground region. Tuesday’s report came after an aid convoy was hit in the northern province of Aleppo.
In the week after the truce was declared on September 12, only 27 civilians were killed as fighting dropped significantly across the country.
United States Secretary of State John Kerry speaks during the Summit for Refugees and Migrants at U.N. headquarters, Monday, Sept. 19, 2016.
“And for more than a week, the Syrian regime repeatedly denied entry to these United Nations convoys, preventing them from delivering urgent food, water and medical supplies to desperate Syrian citizens”.
The US, Russia and other key players are still set to gather Tuesday in NY for talks aimed at ending the five-year conflict that has killed more than 300,000 people and displaced millions.
“The convoy was the outcome of a long process of permission and preparations to assist isolated civilians”, he said in a statement emailed to Reuters.
The United States, Russia and other key players involved in the Syria peace process are set to meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in NY on Tuesday, a U.S. spokesman says.
There is no real cease-fire here, no demilitarization and little hope of humanitarian aid reaching hundreds of thousands of civilians marooned by this conflict.
The UN held back deliveries destined for Aleppo city because it was unable to obtain security guarantees.
The Syrian Civil Defense released footage of the aftermath of the strike, with an aid worker showing the destruction at what he says is the warehouse of the Syrian Crescent, an aid organization.
“With the rebels failing to fulfill conditions the ceasefire agreement, we consider its unilateral observance by the Syrian government forces meaningless”, Rudskoi said.
Foreign ministers from the International Syria Support Group comprised of some 20 countries including Saudi Arabia and Turkey would assess the situation, said deputy spokesman Mark Toner. “But we don’t have all the facts at this point”.
The ceasefire deal had three key components: fighting between government and rebel forces across Syria would halt, although strikes on Islamic State and other jihadists could continue.
Aid deliveries to the besieged eastern districts of Aleppo have not reached their destination.
Additionally, on Saturday the US -led coalition fighting ISIS halted an airstrike in eastern Syria that the Russian Defense Ministry said killed 62 Syrian government soldiers and injured 100 others.
Secretary of State John Kerry in NY called on Russian Federation to restrain Syrian President Bashar Assad and said it was too soon to say whether the cease-fire is dead.
Russia’s military has said it was told by the Syrian army that at least 62 Syrian soldiers were killed in the Deir el-Zour air raid and more than 100 wounded.
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A response came yesterday when a barrage of strikes hit the rebel-held eastern side of Aleppo, killing one woman and injuring several others.
