The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss intelligence information publicly. 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 week-long ceasefire. “We hope to resume convoys tomorrow and Friday, but still work on security guarantees”.
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United Nations halts all aid deliveries after attack destroys 18 trucks in rebel-held northern Aleppo and kills at least 20 people.
Laerke acknowledged that a full assessment had not been completed, but said the planned deliveries would take place now on a case-by-case basis.
The Syrian military said the truce expired Monday night, shortly before the attack near Aleppo.
Syria’s Aleppo faced intense air strikes that killed a team of medics as the UN Security Council held talks on Wednesday to revive the failed ceasefire.
At least 12 civilians, including two children, were killed, the highest single-day toll since the truce collapsed this week, the monitor said.
Syrian state media and a TV station controlled by its Lebanese ally Hezbollah said the army had recaptured a fertiliser factory in the Ramousah area to the southwest of the city.
In New York on Tuesday, Russian and US diplomats insisted that the cease-fire, which went into effect nine days ago, was not dead, despite soaring violence. On Wednesday, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, said that a US predator drone was in the area at the time of the assault.
His comments follow Mr Kerry’s declaration that Russian Federation should stand up and take responsibility for air strikes, criticising Russia’s defence ministry for changing its story.
Russian Federation strongly denies involvement of its own or Syrian planes, and says the incident was caused by fire on the ground and not by an air strike. Yet following the convoy attack, the United Nations suspended overland aid operations to hard-to-reach areas in Syria.
US Secretary of State John Kerry insisted the ceasefire was “not dead” despite the attack, in which a Red Crescent warehouse and health clinic were also seriously damaged, and aid supplies for thousands of people were destroyed.
He told the U.N. Security Council that stopping the flights could restore trust in efforts to end the war and “give a chance for humanitarian assistance to flow unimpeded”. The convoy was carrying United Nations aid. Then, the Kremlin released a drone video of its own purporting to show a single rebel vehicle towing a mortar alongside the aid convoy, although Moscow did not say what exactly that meant.
The diametrically opposed views of Washington and Moscow were underscored at the Security Council meeting that had originally been called to enshrine the September 9 truce.
A partial truce brokered by the United States and Russian Federation lasted just a week.
The American top diplomat told the Council that a medical facility in Aleppo was hit in airstrikes on Tuesday and blamed Russian Federation and Syria for the attack. The U.N. called it a deliberate attack.
Russian Federation denies any role in the attack and in turn accuses Washington of failing to ensure that the US-backed opposition forces fighting Assad respected the truce.
Rebel sources also reported an attempt by pro-government forces to advance in the Handarat area to the north of Aleppo, saying this too had been repelled.
The group, known by its French initials UOSSM, said three nurses and two ambulance drivers were killed.
“There are only two countries that have planes that are flying during the night or flying in that particular area at all”, Kerry said.
State TV meanwhile said a Syrian warplane crashed after carrying out a combat mission against Islamic State militants northwest of the capital, Damascus.
“This is not a joke”, Kerry said, sharply criticizing those who engage in “word games” to dodge responsibility over questions of “war and peace, life and death”. Syria’s rebels do not have aircraft.
IS says it downed a Syrian government warplane.
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Konashenkov once again denied Moscow’s jets carried out any air strikes on the convoy and said that “they were not even in that area”.
