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The Perils of Delivering Aid in Syria

A medical relief organization says an airstrike in northern Syria hit a mobile emergency unit, and not a medical facility.

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A U.S. -Russian cease-fire agreement reached on September 9 has all but collapsed.

The U.N said convoys to priority areas would be resumed, with deliveries planned as early as Thursday.

The U.S. blamed Russian Federation for the attack on the convoy that reportedly killed an unspecified number of aid workers and drivers.

Speaking at the UN Security Council high level meeting on Wednesday, Sergei Lavrov said a ceasefire brokered with the USA on September 9 will only work if there is a comprehensive approach with simultaneous steps taken by all parties involved in the conflict. The group later said two nurses and two ambulance drivers were killed, while a third nurse remains in critical condition.

Syrian government forces have been accused of carrying out “double tap” attacks throughout the 5-1/2 year war, placing paramedics and rescue workers in peril. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring body, confirmed the advance and said government forces had pressed forward near an apartment complex nearby. Aircraft from Syria, Russia and the US-led coalition are targeting the Fatah al-Sham Front, which along with the Islamic State group was excluded from a weeklong cease-fire.

The attack on the aid convoy, which the Syrian Red Crescent said killed the head of its local office and around 20 other people, brought furious global condemnation.

UN Secretary General Ban ki Moon began the speeches by saying “we are at a make or break moment” in the Syrian crisis.

The U.S. initially said it believed Russian or Syrian government jets were behind the attack on the aid convoy.

The Syrian army is backed by Moscow, Iran, Shi’ite militias and fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah, while the rebels are supported by countries including the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

But Moscow has denied all involvement, instead suggesting a fire broke out destroying the vehicles among other theories.

But there had been three different reactions from Russian Federation, including a suggestion from the Ministry of Defence that the goods in the convoys had caught fire and spontaneously combusted.

“To restore credibility, we must immediately ground all aircraft flying in those key areas in order to de-escalate the situation and give a chance for humanitarian assistance to flow unimpeded”, he said.

In New York on Tuesday (Wednesday NZT), Russian and C diplomats insisted that the cease-fire, which went into effect nine days ago, was not dead, despite soaring violence.

An ceasefire reached between Russian Federation, which supports the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, and the United States literally went up in flames this week with an accidental air strike against Syrian troops, killing 60, on Saturday and then the bombing of an UN aid convoy two days ago, killing 20.

Despite accusing Moscow of being behind the bombing of the aid convoy, the United States says the ceasefire agreement it sponsored jointly with Russian Federation is “not dead”. Syrians living in opposition areas will be disproportionately affected because the UN’s major warehouses are located in government-held areas.

The White House said publicly Tuesday night that it held Russians responsible, regardless of whether it or the Syrian government had launched the strikes, since they have responsibility for the airspace.

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Ibrahim Alhaj, a member of the volunteer first responders known as the Syria Civil Defense, says 24 people were killed in the Aleppo strikes. She was referring to the rebel-besieged towns of Foua and Kefraya in Idlib and government-blockaded Madaya and Zabadani near the Lebanese border.

Damaged Red Cross and Red Crescent medical supplies lie inside a warehouse after an airstrike on the rebel held Urm al Kubra town western Aleppo city Syria