A Syrian man carries the body of an infant retrieved from under the rubble of a building following a reported airstrike on September 23, 2016, on the al-Muasalat area in the northern city of Aleppo.
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In another sign of the Syrian government’s determination to gain territory, it evacuated more rebel fighters from the last opposition-held district of Homs, which would complete the government’s recapture of the central city, now largely in ruins. Another showed rescuers digging out a toddler with their bare hands, shouting “God is Great” as they lift him from the debris.
The Syrian war has seen more than 400,000 people killed and nearly 11 million Syrians – half the country’s prewar population – displaced.
“Can you hear it?”
“We’re evaluating some mutual ideas in a constructive way, period”, he told reporters at the United Nations.
Heavy Syrian and Russian air strikes on rebel-held eastern areas of Aleppo city killed at least 25 civilians on Saturday, a monitor said, overwhelming doctors and rescue workers.
The White Helmets, a Syrian volunteer rescue group, said dozens of air strikes were carried out in Aleppo on Friday morning.
“Meanwhile, what is happening in Aleppo is under attack and everyone is going back to the conflict”, he said. An army statement confirming the advance said “large numbers of terrorists” had been killed, using the regime’s terminology for any anti-Assad groups.
Warplanes bombed Aleppo on Friday with what residents described as unprecedented ferocity after the Syrian army declared an offensive to fully capture Syria’s biggest city. “Aleppo is burning”, said Bahaa al-Halabi, an activist from a besieged rebel-held district.
“The only way to take eastern Aleppo is by such a monstrous atrocity that it would resonate for generations”.
“How come that no one is able to stop the regime?” she said.
But frustration over recent developments, including the Syrian military’s announcement of a new offensive in Aleppo, suggested that chances were slim for success.
The army urged civilians to distance themselves from “the positions of terrorist groups” and pledged that fleeing residents would not be detained.
A military source said the bombardment was in preparation for a ground operation.
He said reinforcements had already been brought to Aleppo.
“I woke up to a powerful natural disaster though I was in a place far away from where the missile landed”, he said in a voice recording sent to Reuters.
Talks this week on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in NY had been meant to shore up the truce and lay the groundwork for peace talks, but instead descended into mutual recriminations.
A Russian-US ceasefire agreement that was reached on Sept 9 and went into effect on Sept 12 collapsed on Monday with an attack on a humanitarian aid convoy near Aleppo that killed about 20 people.
“We have four centres in eastern Aleppo”.
Kerry said they had made “a little bit of progress” on resolving their differences over the Syrian crisis.
United Nations peace envoy Staffan de Mistura called it a “long, painful and disappointing meeting” but insisted that Washington and Moscow are serious about the truce.
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“We have not succeeded so far, but there was a lot of support around the table for the proposal, a temporary ban for all flights in order to create the conditions for the truce”, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.
