On Thursday the Syrian army announced it would launch a new offensive in rebel-held areas of eastern Aleppo – defying the truce. The neighborhood is getting hit right now by missiles.
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Russian Federation has accused the USA of bombing a humanitarian aid convoy in Syria from an unmanned drone, while the US has said it holds Russian Federation and its regime allies accountable. It has never happened before, so why to happen now, either by the Russians or the Syrians? “The planes are not leaving the sky, helicopters, barrel bombs, warplanes”.
The offensive against rebel-held parts of the city is “a comprehensive one”, including a ground attack and preparatory air and artillery attacks could go on “for some time”, a Syrian military source said.
The rebel-run Aleppo Media Centre said 20 people have been killed, and the city’s main water pumping station has been destoyed.
A furious Kerry then told the entire room, including his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, that “even while we are meeting here, they are doing this”, a USA official told the Associated Press.
Cluster bombs have left entire streets in flames after the Syrian government announced a major offensive on rebel-held areas. Before the war, the city held almost 3 million people and was Syria’s economic hub.
Ammar al-Selmo, the head of the local civil defence rescue service, or the White Helmets, said five jets he identified as Russian began a fresh wave of bombing at around 6am.
However, Alice said numerous Syrian refugees she interviewed told her they are too afraid of Assad’s security forces to return home, even if there is peace in Syria.
Kerry says the US will continue pushing for a negotiated truce and political transition that can end five years of war.
Earlier, before the meeting, Lavrov had been asked whether there was any way to revive the ceasefire.
Assad cast doubt on the intentions of the United States in Syria, saying it “doesn’t have the will” to fight militants. Thursday’s meeting of the International Syria Support Group comes after the two blamed each other for spoiling the country’s cease-fire that they had agreed to only two weeks before.
A senior U.S. State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters: “The ball is very much in the Russians’ court to come back to us with some ideas that are serious, that would be above and beyond the types of things they have been willing to agree to in the past with regard to air activities over large parts of Syria”.
Kerry added that he is “no less determined today than I was yesterday, but I am even more frustrated”. The top US military official told Congress on Thursday that he disagrees with Kerry’s proposal to ground all warplanes.
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In a tense televised exchange with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the United Nations on Wednesday, Kerry said stopping the bombardment was the last chance to find a way “out of the carnage”.
