O’Brien, the United Nations humanitarian chief, said there is no excuse “for waging war on courageous and selfless humanitarian workers”, and warned that if they were deliberately targeted “it would amount to a war crime”.
Advertisement
“There is no truth to reports circulated by some media outlets that (the) Syrian army targeted the humanitarian aid convoy in rural Aleppo (governorate)”, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported, quoting a military source.
In a statement, the Foreign Secretary said: “The attack on the aid convoy in Aleppo was appalling and a clear violation of the most basic of humanitarian principles”.
Syria’s cease-fire has faltered further after an aid convoy was hit by airstrikes, with activists saying at least 12 people were killed in the attack, mostly truck drivers and Red Crescent workers.
The two sides, which brokered the truce earlier this month, had said that if it holds for seven days, it would be followed by the establishment of a Joint Implementation Center for both countries to coordinate the targeting of Islamic State and al-Qaida-linked militants.
The cease-fire came into effect on September 12.
Although not confirmed by either organisation, this meant that either Russian or Syrian aircraft were strongly suspected of being responsible as neither opposition groups nor jihadist groups have air power. “This area is full of civilians, it’s residential”, Badawi said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitor group, reported Monday night that an airstrike was responsible for the destruction, with a spokesman for the Red Cross in Geneva also referring to an air strike on Tuesday morning. The area was essentially cut off in July when the Syrian government launched a siege and encircled the rebel-held area.
Soon after, the USA said it’s prepared to extend the fractured ceasefire despite numerous violations and the Syrian military’s announcement. 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.
A senior Syrian opposition figure said on Monday that the ceasefire was “clinically dead”.
George Sabra of the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) told The Associated Press news agency that the truce had been repeatedly violated and did not succeed in opening roads for aid to enter besieged rebel-held areas.
The Syrian military statement placed the blame squarely on the rebel groups.
“This step (cease-fire) was to constitute a real chance to stop the bloodshed”.
A major rebel groups in Syria, Nour el-Din el-Zinki, said soon after the Syrian military declaration that the government, Russian Federation and Iran, another major ally of President Bashar Assad, are responsible for the truce’s failure.
Earlier on Monday Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi of the Russian military’s General Staff said in a briefing that Damascus had fulfilled its obligations.
But a member of the Syrian Civil Defence – a group of volunteer first responders also known as the White Helmets – criticized the United Nations humanitarian aid agency for suspending the convoys.
Rudskoi said the rebels have violated the truce 302 times since it took effect a week ago, killing 63 civilians and 153 Syrian soldiers.
Peskov also took the opportunity to again highlight the US -led coalition’s major transgression of last week, which American military officers have conceded was likely a mistaken airstrike on Syrian forces that killed dozens. He denied that Russian warplanes or those of the Syrian government had conducted any airstrikes on the aid convoy.
Assad said Monday the airstrikes by the USA -led coalition against his troops were meant to support the Islamic State group, calling the attack a “blatant American aggression”.
Advertisement
Isachenkov reported from Moscow.
