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Envoy accuses Syria of unprecedented violence

A truce deal hammered out by Russian Federation and the United States this month was meant to allow aid to be trucked into the east of the city.

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An air campaign by the government and allied Russian Federation against rebels in the city was to blame, the monitoring group said. “One person was killed when he disturbed one and it exploded”, he added.

“It tore him apart.it was an terrible scene”.

Civilians watch as a tractor clears the rubble following Syrian government forces airstrikes in the rebel-held neighbourhood of Tariq a-Bab in Aleppo on Saturday.

The capture of the Handarat camp a few kilometres north of Aleppo marked the first major ground advance of the offensive, which the government announced on Thursday.

The UN special envoy on Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said the offensive to take the city had unleashed “unprecedented military violence” on its inhabitants, killing at least 213 civilians, many of them women and children.

Mr Churkin said there was a humanitarian corridor by which residents could leave but it was being blocked by rebels.

Mr de Mistura said there had been reports of bunker-buster bombs and incendiary weapons which created “fireballs of such intensity that they light up the pitch darkness in Aleppo as if it were daylight” being used.

Thousands of civilians remained trapped in Aleppo on Sunday, three days into a Syrian army-led offensive aimed at seizing rebel-held areas of the country’s former economic capital. “It’s apocalyptic what is being done in eastern Aleppo”.

He asked the council to press for a cessation of the violence and protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure, weekly 48-hour pauses in the fighting for aid convoys “without preconditions neither from the government nor frankly from the opposition” and “to press for medical evacuations. from eastern Aleppo”. Lavrov said a unilateral prohibition on Russian and Syrian air forces “would not be taken seriously by us anymore”, adding that unless the United States and its coalition partners take steps to separate moderate armed groups from Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, “our suspicions that this all is being done to take the heat off Jabhat all-Nusra will strengthen”. Video of the blast sites show craters several metres wide and deep.

“Instead of pursuing peace, Russian Federation and Assad make war”, said Samantha Power, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, during the emergency meeting. Since then, Moscow and Washington, which back opposing sides in the Syrian civil war, have been accusing each other of violating the peace deal. Russian Federation and the United States are the co-chairs of the taskforces and ISSG, which comprises the UN, the Arab League, the European Union and 16 other countries.

The session, to begin at 11 a.m. ET, was requested by the United States, Britain and France in the wake of the regime’s military push to retake rebel-held parts of eastern Aleppo in recent days, a UN source confirmed to CNN.

“Patience with Russia’s continued inability or unwillingness to adhere to its commitments is not unlimited”, the so-called Quint group said. The U.N. says the attack could amount to a war crime if proven deliberate, though it has not assigned responsibility yet.

“Negotiations under the present conditions are no longer useful and are meaningless”, the statement said.

And to cap it all, water supplies, so vital to millions, are now being targeted, depriving water to those most in need. The army says it is targeting only militants. The strategic area fell to government troops on Saturday.

While Bayoush indicated rebel capabilities could be enhanced to a degree, he said a more significant shift would be in their tactics, though he gave no details.

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A ceasefire between the Syrian Government and rebel forces collapsed last week when an aid convoy was bombed.

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