Erdogan’s announcement comes as a fragile cease-fire, brokered by the United States and Russian Federation and now in its seventh day, has mostly held despite numerous violations.
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The United States has supported and armed what it considers moderate rebels in Syria fighting militants groups such as ISIS, while Russian Federation has supported the Syrian regime and considers all rebel groups “terrorists”.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, speaks with United Nations envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura during the International Syria Support Group meeting Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016, in NY. 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.
Russian or Syrian aircraft did not carry out airstrikes against a United Nations humanitarian aid convoy near the city of Aleppo, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Tuesday in a statement on Facebook.
At least 18 of 31 lorries in the convoy were hit, according to a United Nations spokesperson.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 12 were killed in the attack, mostly truck drivers and Red Crescent workers.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, and it is unclear whether an airstrike hit the convoy or whether it was shelled.
They posted images of a number of vehicles on fire in the dead of the night. “This is full of blankets from the United Nations refugee agency”.
“It is outrageous that it was hit while offloading at warehouses”, he said. “They also have not yet withdrawn their troops, arms and equipment from the road”, Rudskoy said.
And Russia said government positions in south-western Aleppo came under attack from militant groups, including a massive barrage of rockets.
Chief US diplomat Kerry will try to speak to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in NY before Tuesday’s meeting of the International Syria Support Group but statements from Syrian and Russian military officials on the ground appeared to bury the deal.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called it a “sickening, savage and apparently deliberate attack”, in his address to world leaders at the General Assembly Tuesday.
Syria’s Assad regime on Monday unilaterally announced the end of a cease-fire – sponsored by the US and Russian Federation – that came into effect on September 12 to mark the recently-ended Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday.
A USA official said the US military believed reports that about 60 Syrian troops were killed.
Tuesday’s gathering of the top US and Russian diplomats, and more than a dozen of their Arab and European counterparts, ended with ritual reaffirmation of a cease-fire that has all but disintegrated, and promises of future negotiations. -Russian military partnership against Islamic State militants and al-Qaida, once envisioned to start Tuesday.
Seven days after the cease-fire went into effect, aid convoys have not been able to reach besieged rebel-held neighborhoods of the northern city of Aleppo.
After the army announcement, activists said Aleppo and the surrounding province were heavily targeted, and a correspondent with the Agence France-Presse inside Aleppo city said there was nearly non-stop bombardment. It said the airstrikes were “on goal and planned in advance”, and killed dozens of Syrian soldiers. There were no independent reports of deaths of civilians on the government-side since the cease-fire came into effect.
By Monday, both the Syrian government and prominent opposition activists were speaking of the truce as if it had already failed.
However, he also repeated calls for the sustained delivery of humanitarian aid to Aleppo and other besieged communities. “I believe that the truce is clinically dead”.
Another rebel official also signaled the insurgents might soon step up military action.
He said “the main issue” was that non-jihadist rebels had not been separated from Syria’s former Al-Qaeda affiliate on the ground.
“The regime of Bashar Assad had no real intention to commit to the truce”.
Syria’s armed forces “exercised the highest degree of self-restraint while facing violations by terrorist groups”, the statement said.
Damascus:Syrians walk through the rubble following an air strike on the rebel-controlled neighbourhood of Karm al-Jabal on Sunday.
The UN and Syrian Arab Red Crescent humanitarian mission had sought to take advantage of the ceasefire, which collapsed on Monday night as shells and bombs rained down on Aleppo city and the surrounding province.
The air strike on a Syrian army position by the US-led coalition on Saturday triggered a fierce war of words between Washington and Moscow, with Russian Federation saying it put the agreement under threat. The Pentagon said the strike was accidental and United States officials expressed regret, but Russian Federation and Syria raised the possibility that the U.S. was acting in support of ISIS.
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Meanwhile, Syrian state TV reported that government warplanes attacked positions of the Islamic State group in eastern Deir el-Zour province on Monday.
