Shells and bombs rained down on rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Monday soon after Syria’s army declared an end to a week-long ceasefire agreed between Russian Federation and the United States.
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The United States said it was prepared to extend the truce deal and Russian Federation – after blaming rebels for the violations – suggested it could still be salvaged.
He denounced the Syrian military declaration, but also suggested that Russian Federation was partly to blame.
Although Kerry professed hope, US officials said Monday conditions were still not right to set up the Joint Implementation Center.
Jan Egeland, humanitarian aid co-ordinator in the office of the United Nations envoy for Syria, said that the Syrian Red Crescent convoy carrying United Nations supplies had been “bombarded”.
It said in a statement that “terrorist groups“, a term the Syrian government uses to refer to all insurgents fighting against it, had failed to commit to any of the provisions of the deal, and had used the ceasefire to rearm whilst violating it 300 times.
Four strikes against Syrian positions were performed by two F-16 jet fighters and two A-10 support aircraft belonging to the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Syria.
President Bashar al-Assad on Monday accused the United States of “flagrant aggression” for the attack on its forces in Deir Ezzor.
Shortly after Syria’s armed forces declared that the truce was dead and blamed opposition rebels for undermining it, Kerry noted that the cease-fire had not produced the desired reduction in violence and sustained delivery of humanitarian aid.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 29 children and teenagers were among those killed, as well as 17 women. He added then that the United States had heard about “an incident” that he said “flies directly contrary to that right”.
A Syrian activist group says 92 people have been killed in Syria since the start of the U.S. -Russia-brokered cease-fire a week ago.
Asked about the Syrian declaration that the ceasefire was over, Kerry said, “We have not had seven days of calm and of delivery of humanitarian goods”.
But both the Syrian army and the rebels spoke openly of returning to the battlefield.
Russia’s military has said that it was told by the Syrian army that at least 62 Syrian soldiers were killed in the Deir el-Zour air raid and more than 100 wounded.
He added that the situation looks as if it were intentionally created by the USA to accuse Russian Federation and the Syrian government of disrupting the delivery of humanitarian assistance, “although Russian Federation has repeatedly called on all countries to join forces in conducting humanitarian operations in Syria and particularly Aleppo”. The cease-fire does not include IS and al-Qaida-linked militants. However, the US officials said details of the agreement were shared on Monday.
Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov brokered the ceasefire that went into effect September 12. The opposition reported on Monday 254 violations by government forces and their allies since the truce started.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the failure of Syrian rebels to adhere to the truce “threatens the cease-fire and US-Russian agreements”.
Moscow appeared to bury hopes that the truce would last, however.
Rebel groups however have denied reports that the Syrian Army has been pulling back from the Castello Road, putting their reluctance to move down to their wish not to be the first to leave their positions.
Last month, Turkey for the first time sent tanks across the border into Syria to help rebels clear territory of IS militants and to contain the expansion of a Syrian Kurdish militia.
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Kirby noted that the cease-fire arrangement was agreed to by the United States and Russian Federation, which is responsible for the compliance of the Assad government.
