The International Syria Support Group, including the US, Russia and other major powers, met on the sidelines of the annual United Nations gathering of world leaders in NY as the Syrian army announced the start of a new military offensive in the rebel-held east of the city of Aleppo.
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The group says it has just two fire engines left for all of eastern Aleppo which, like its ambulances, are struggling to move around the city.
Yasser Ibrahim al-Youssef, a political representative for Nour al-Dine al-Zinki, one of the rebel groups fighting in Aleppo, said Friday the war had returned in force. An army statement confirming the advance said “large numbers of terrorists” had been killed.
The Syrian Army has announced a new offensive in the rebel-held east of Aleppo, days after a week-long ceasefire crumbled.
The foreign minister addressed the General Assembly after holding talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry on reviving a ceasefire in Syria that was shattered this week. “I am no less determined today than I was yesterday but I am even more frustrated”.
An intense wave of bombings unleashed on Aleppo by the Syrian government will be backed up by ground forces, a Syrian military source has said.
The renewed conflict, including a strike on a United Nations aid convoy outside Aleppo on Monday night, has also blocked the delivery of most humanitarian supplies to opposition-held areas, though one convoy reached a besieged district outside Damascus on Thursday. Images of blast sites show craters several metres wide and deep.
Streets in the city were empty as almost 250,000 people were still trapped in the rebel-held sector of Aleppo, seeking shelter from jets.
Fresh strikes were reported in the city on Saturday, as the Syrian army pressed on with its push to retake rebel areas.
On Thursday night, the Syrian military publicized “the start of its operations in the eastern districts of Aleppo”, warning people of the danger and telling them to stay away from “the headquarters and positions of the armed terrorist gangs”. The army says it is only targeting militants.
“Our teams are responding but are not enough to cover this amount of catastrophe”, Al-Selmo explained. The pumping station supplying rebel-held parts of Aleppo was damaged on Thursday and subsequent strikes had made repairs impossible, the official added.
A pro-government Iraqi militia commander in the Aleppo area told Reuters the aim was to capture all of Aleppo within a week.
Kerry said this week that restoring the shattered truce will require a major gesture on the part of the Syrian government and its allies, demanding the establishment of a no-fly zone over areas controlled by the opposition.
Meanwhile the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that more than 6,000 people, in large part ISIS militants, have been killed in two years of airstrikes by the US-led worldwide coalition in Syria. Selmo said the toll was more than 100.
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“The raids are intense and continuous”, Observatory Director Rami Abdulrahman said.
