The convoy bombing came just hours after the Syrian army declared an end to a weeklong truce, brokered by the United States and Russian Federation. He claimed on Monday that the Syrian government forces have observed the truce unilaterally, despite the continuing rebel violations.
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Russia’s Foreign Ministry says the failure of Syrian rebels to adhere to a weeklong truce brokered by Moscow and Washington “threatens the cease-fire and U.S”. It said the rebels wasted a “real chance” to stop the bloodshed and did not indicate whether the truce would be reinstated.
A mistaken air raid by the US -led coalition also killed 62 Syrian soldiers.
“Anti-Syrian forces are expending all their energy and capabilities to prolong the terrorist war against Syria”, Assad said.
One of the 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.
The latest developments placed added importance on a meeting Tuesday of the International Syria Support Group, or ISSG, which is comprised of countries with a stake in the conflict and endorsed the truce, to be led by Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
The global medical charity Doctors Without Borders says it is “shocked’ by the attack on an aid convoy in Syria, calling it the latest example of the “continuous disregard paid to the basic rules of war” in the six-year conflict”.
The Saturday airstrikes involved Australian, British and Danish warplanes on Syrian army positions.
United Nations aid chief Stephen O’Brien said he was “deeply concerned” by the incident and 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 global humanitarian law”.
“The destination of this convoy was known to the Syrian regime and the Russian Federation”, State Department spokesman John Kirby said.
Denmark says two of its F-16 fighter jets took part in the USA -led air raid that killed dozens of Syrian soldiers over the weekend. Spokesman Kirby called on Russian Federation, which is responsible for ensuring Syria’s compliance, to clarify the Syrian position.
Within one minute of the strike, the US tracked a Russian-made Su-24 directly over the region of the attack, USA officials said.
The U.S. military said it would not intentionally hit Syrian troops, and that it came as it was conducting a raid on IS positions.
In Geneva, Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said Tuesday that all aid deliveries had been halted pending a review of the security situation in Syria in the aftermath of the airstrikes.
Among the victims was Omar Barakat who headed the Red Crescent in Uram al-Kubra, the town where the attack occurred, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, and Aleppo-based activist Bahaa al-Halaby said. The figure does not include dozens of Syrian soldiers and Islamic State militants killed in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour.
George Sabra, of the opposition High Negotiations Committee, told The Associated Press on Monday that the truce has been repeatedly violated and did not succeed in its main objective or opening roads for aid. Plans to evacuate several hundred rebels from the last opposition-held district of Homs city have also overshadowed the agreement, with rebels saying it would amount to the government declaring the ceasefire over. Syrian state media said there were 32 violations by rebels on Sunday alone.
A seven-day ceasefire declared expired at midnight, with no immediate announcement of its extension on Monday.
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Turkey launched its operation in northern Syria on August 24, sending in tanks and special forces to support opposition fighters in a bid to remove Islamic State (IS) extremists and Kurdish militia forces from its border. That would mean the former superpower enemies fighting together for the first time since World War Two, a measure even more remarkable for the distrust between them since Russian Federation annexed Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula in 2014 and the United States and Europe responded by imposing financial sanctions.
