The strikes have threatened to derail peace talks and came at the end of a one-week truce brokered by US and Russian Federation that was meant to help administer aid to besieged areas.
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Air raids and shelling pounded key battlefronts in Syria on Tuesday, as outrage mounted over a strike on an aid convoy hours after Syria’s military declared an end to a week-long truce.
“Just when we think it can not get any worse, the bar of depravity sinks lower”, Ban said in the speech, his last as leader of the organization after a decade in the job, much of it preoccupied with Syria. Between 12 and 20 people were killed.
At the time of the strike, USA and Russian officials had been meeting behind closed doors in Geneva to discuss extending the ceasefire, although Syria’s army had already declared the truce over and announced it would resume fighting.
The United Nations announced today that it’s suspending overland shipments of food and medical supplies after last nights fatal attack on an aid convoy.
“This is a very, very dark day for humanitarians in Syria and across the world”.
When the convoy departed for Aleppo, “notification. had been provided to all parties to the conflict, and the convoy was clearly marked as humanitarian”, said U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O’Brien.
“We take very seriously this outrageous attack”, Rhodes added.
Still, Rhodes said the US wasn’t yet willing to “walk away from the table” despite the airstrike on the aid convoy that was “completely contrary to and in violation of that agreement”. Humanitarian U.N. aid deliveries had stalled in recent weeks amid continued fighting, and the truce had not paved the way for expanded convoys as initially expected.
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 White Helmets is a volunteer civil defense organization that operates throughout opposition-controlled Syria and is often linked to militants from the group formerly known as Al-Nusra Front.
The Syrian Red Crescent said the head of one of its local offices and “around 20 civilians” had been killed, although other death tolls differed. Essentially, after the first strike hit, a second strike was conducted to hit any rescuers that arrived at the scene. Also unknown is who carried out the attack.
Speaking to the BBC, US officials blamed Russia for the attacks, saying two Russian jets had carried out the strike. The damage inficted on the trucks was “the direct result of the cargo catching fire, which mysteriously began at the same time as a large scale rebel attack on Aleppo”, Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
The cease-fire was intended in part to allow humanitarian convoys to reach besieged and hard-to-reach areas throughout Syria.
Eighteen of 31 trucks carrying medicine, wheat flour and clothing were destroyed in the town of Orum al-Kubra.
The vehicle was seen driving alongside the fleet of trucks, but the drone moved out of the area before the strike.
Photos posted by Aleppo 24 News showed what appears to be an SUV riddled with shrapnel, its windshield blown out.
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Media activist Wassim al-Ahmad sent a text message to The Associated Press from the besieged town of Madaya, outside the Syrian capital, Damascus, saying residents were asking whether the reports were true that the United Nations was suspending its aid convoys.
