Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the failure of Syrian rebels to adhere to the truce “threatens the cease-fire and U.S”. -Russian brokered cease-fire was over, shortly after the Russian military said it was “meaningless” to continue observing the agreement. It was not clear who was behind the strike.
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The State Department said it was prepared to extend the cease-fire window in the hopes that if it held, the US and Russian Federation could then turn to their planned military cooperation against the Islamic State militants and al-Qaida-linked groups in Syria.
Jan Egeland, humanitarian aid co-ordinator in the office of the United Nations envoy for Syria, said that the Syrian Red Crescent convoy carrying United Nations supplies had been “bombarded”.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 12 were killed in the attack, mostly lorry drivers and Red Crescent workers.
A member of the White Helmets group that helps civilians caught in the violence said there had been “heavy bombing on many neighbourhoods” of Aleppo, causing multiple casualties.
United Nations humanitarian aid coordinator Stephen O’Brien said “all parties to the conflict” had been notified about the convoy, which was “clearly marked” as humanitarian aid.
“It is outrageous that it was hit while offloading at warehouses”, he added.
U. N. Humanitarian Chief Stephen O’Brien called on “all parties to the conflict, once again, to take all necessary measures to protect humanitarian actors, civilians, and civilian infrastructure as required by worldwide humanitarian law”.
Abdurrahman said the convoy of about 30 trucks had crossed earlier from a government-controlled area and were hit from the air hours after they reached the Red Crescent warehouse.
Among the victims was Omar Barakat who headed the Red Crescent in the town where the attack occurred, they said.
Meanwhile, bombs and shells were reported as raining down on eastern Aleppo, home to 250,000 people cut off in an opposition-controlled area.
Syrian government troops, supported by Russian air forces, repelled an offensive by militants on the northern fringes of Syria’s largest city of Aleppo on Tuesday, killing 40 attackers, RIA news agency quoted Russia’s Defence Ministry as saying.
The week-old ceasefire had brought a brief respite to at least some parts of the war-torn country.
The United Nations said it had received government approval to reach almost all the besieged and hard-to-reach areas where it sought to bring aid, but access to many areas was still constrained by fighting, insecurity and administrative delays. Earlier in the day, Kerry told reporters on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly that the truce was “holding but fragile”.
The State Department criticised Syrian forces and their Russian allies for repeatedly targeting aid convoys. -Russian coordination center to plan military strikes against the Islamic State group and a powerful al-Qaida-linked militant faction.
But from the start, the truce was beset by difficulties and mutual accusations of violations.
Aid deliveries to the besieged eastern districts of Aleppo have not reached their destination. The military said the armed groups also took advantage of the truce to mobilise and arm themselves while attacking government-held areas. The agreement reduced fighting in some parts of Syria for some days, but the truce teetered on the edge of collapse over the weekend as fighting flared up and the government resumed airstrikes on some rebel-held areas.
Apart from the 12 killed in the convoy attack, 22 civilians died in attacks Monday across the province, according to the Observatory and Aleppo 24 News. The group said four civilians were killed in government-held areas. “Present in this hall today are representatives of governments that have ignored, facilitated, funded, participated in or even planned and carried out atrocities inflicted by all sides of the Syria conflict against Syrian civilians”.
Damaged buildings and rubble line a street in Homs, Syria, Sept. 19, 2016.
“The Americans are firmly blaming the Russians, saying they’re not reining in Damascus”, Al Jazeera’s Stephanie Dekker reported from Gaziantep, on the Syrian border.
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The United States announced on Monday its intentions and efforts put into extending the recently posed Syria cessation of hostilities agreement.
