Syria’s army said the seven day truce period had ended.
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He said the U.S.is prepared to extend the cease-fire, “while working to strengthen it and expand deliveries of assistance”.
As the cease-fire crumbled Monday, the watchdog Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported airstrikes and clashes on the ground near Homs and Aleppo, killing at least one woman and leaving multiple people injured. But he said some aid was finally moving.
Ibrahim Alhaj told The Associated Press that Syrian civilians will pay the price for the decision – and that the United Nations should have condemned the attacks on the convoy rather than suspending aid. American officials said, however, that conditions were still not right for U.S.
The U.N. confirmed that the Syrian Red Crescent convoy, which it had supported, was hit in airstrikes near the town of Urm al-Kubra in the Aleppo region.
“The United States is outraged by reports that a humanitarian aid convoy was bombed near Aleppo today…”
UN 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”. The figure does not include dozens of Syrian soldiers and Islamic State militants killed in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour, the Observatory said Monday.
“We don’t know if it can be salvaged”, a senior USA official told journalists on condition of anonymity.
“The regime of Bashar Assad had no real intention to commit to the truce”. The Syrian military could not immediately be reached for comment on the attack. Damascus refers to all armed opposition groups as terrorists.
Despite numerous violations by the government and Syrian rebels, the USA has few other options for ending a conflict that has killed a half-million people, contributed to Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War II and allowed the Islamic State group to emerge as a global threat.
“The Russians made the agreement”.
A witness told the Reuters news agency by phone that about five missile strikes had hit the lorries, which were parked at a centre belonging to the Syrian Red Crescent. “But the point – the important thing is the Russians need to control Assad, who evidently is indiscriminately bombing, including of humanitarian convoys”.
“It would be good if they didn’t talk first to the press but if they talked to the people who are actually negotiating this”, Mr Kerry said. However, he also repeated calls for the sustained delivery of humanitarian aid to Aleppo and other besieged communities. “The last two were barrel bombs”, he said, the sound of an explosion audible in the background.
The Turkish leader said on Monday that the offensive will last until the area “is no longer a threat” to Turkey. The Danish defense minister said on Monday “more credible sources” than just the Russian account were needed before he could draw conclusions.
The latest developments placed added importance on a meeting Tuesday of the International Syria Support Group, or ISSG.
But like the Syrian army, the rebels spoke of returning to the battlefield.
“We all need to take responsibility”, Ayrault said. Such deliveries began only on Monday and were available only in limited areas, he said. The global body said that 18 of 31 lorries were struck, as well as a Red Crescent warehouse, despite its planned deliveries to 78,000 people.
But most aid shipments were still waiting to go in.
Syria’s armed forces announced an end to the week-long ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russian Federation, blaming rebel groups for its failure. The strike was called off when the Russians called their US counterparts and informed them of the mistake. But while it led to a significant reduction in fighting at the outset, violence has increased in recent days and aid has mostly failed to arrive.
In the wake of the attack Washington and Moscow are going to convene an urgent meeting on Monday night to Tuesday to discuss the implications of the incident to the Syrian peace process.
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Washington and Moscow back opposite sides in the war between Assad’s government and the insurgents, while both oppose the Islamic State jihadist group.
