The closed-door consultations were scrapped after Moscow and Washington failed to agree on how disclose details of the ceasefire to the council. The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman blasted Washington over the indiscriminate airstrike that she said serves the interests of the Islamic State. The fighting and mutual accusations of violations sparked concern that the fragile cease-fire, which brought some relief to millions of people across the war-ravaged country, may be starting to fray. He added that the Russian air force will provide cover if that happens.
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The ministry said Lavrov had once again called for the United States to make the agreement public and have the United Nations Security Council endorse it. Russia’s military said it was told by the Syrian army that at least 62 soldiers were killed in the air raid and more than 100 wounded. He says the USA has failed to take measures to ensure the opposition’s compliance with the agreement.
The military says the projectile was intercepted Saturday, without elaborating.
Central Command said Syria is a complex situation, with a variety of military forces and militias in close proximity, and that coalition forces would not intentionally strike a known Syrian military unit.
The Syrian army said the strike allowed Islamic State fighters to briefly overrun their position.
In a video call from Castello Road, Russian Col. Sergei Kapitsyn said the rebels fired on government positions overnight, wounding two Syrian soldiers and prompting the Syrian army to move their weapons back to the road to prevent the rebels from advancing.
The SANA news agency says the projectile hit the second floor of the Syriac Catholic Church in the city’s government-held neighborhood of Aziziyeh. The truce has largely held, despite dozens of alleged violations by both sides.
On Thursday, government forces started to withdraw from the Castello Road, a key route to the besieged rebel-held eastern part of Aleppo.
Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quoted by the state news agency TASS as saying that “after today’s attack on the Syrian army, we come to the bad conclusion that the White House is defending the Islamic State”.
The UN has described the truce as a “critical window of opportunity” to deliver aid to rebel-held eastern districts of Aleppo city, where around 250,000 civilians are under siege.
Humanitarian access hinges on control of the Castello Road, the main route into the besieged rebel-held part and a major frontline in the war, but so far there has been no progress towards opening it.
But as well as a reduction in violence the USA also demanded that supplies be allowed to reach areas under siege across the country and especially in Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city.
The Lebanese station enjoys wide access in government-held areas in Syria and usually has reporters embedded with Syrian troops.
The cease-fire was supposed to pave the way for aid shipments into besieged rebel-held areas of Aleppo, but convoys have yet to enter. She said US officials were investigating the incident.
The state-run Anadolu news agency says three US flags were hung on Thursday around a compound of the Democratic Union Party, or PYD, and were still visible from Turkey on Friday afternoon.
Syria’s army has been fighting off a fierce offensive by the Islamic State jihadist group on the Deir Ezzor military airport since previous year. President Bashar Assad’s government views all those fighting against it as “terrorists”, and has long accused the US and other rebel supporters of backing extremists.
“They, in their typical way, came up with a completely different thing, which is trying to interpret and reinterpret the agreement”, Churkin said, referring to US officials.
A military source said Syria’s army “has carried out its pledge and handed over a number of points to the Russian monitoring teams”, but that rebel groups had not withdrawn from their positions.
But Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s men later said they had re-taken the outpost.
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Under the agreement, if the ceasefire holds for a week and humanitarian supplies reach needy civilians, then the USA and Russia’s armed forces would begin exploring broader military cooperation.
