He added that only Russian and Syrian warplanes had flown in northern Syria on September 19 where a United Nations aid convoy and Red Crescent warehouse were hit by an aerial attack, killing at least 20 civilians.
Advertisement
“And thus hide the failure of the United States of America in distinguishing between the moderate opposition and terrorists in Syria”. When the convoy departed for Aleppo, “notification. had been provided to all parties to the conflict, and the convoy was clearly marked as humanitarian”, said Stephen O’Brien, U.N. emergency relief coordinator.
But aid will not be delivered to Aleppo, the city at the heart of the conflict, split into rebel-held and regime-held areas.
A former US Ambassador to Syria has dismissed suggestions the convoy could have been targeted in retaliation for the killings at Deir al Zor, suggesting Syria’s aim is to block aid from getting to Aleppo.
The rebels killed were from Jaish al-Fatah, an Islamist group not officially part of the Western-backed alliance but one that works alongside the Free Syrian Army, the BBC’s James Longman in Beirut reports.
Both say they’re committed to fighting the Islamic State group and al-Qaida-linked militants. Washington said that strike was carried out by mistake with the intent of hitting Islamic State. It would be a first step toward shifting the direction of the cease-fire, which originally called for the US and Russian militaries to begin working together to target the Islamic State group and the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front in Syria.
A strike on a Syrian Red Crescent aid convoy earlier this week prompted global condemnation. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon used his farewell speech to the General Assembly in NY to denounce the “cowards” behind it.
On Monday evening, airstrikes hit an aid convoy that was coordinated by the United Nations that was en route to an area west of Aleppo – an incident that has drawn widespread global condemnation.
Officials have told the BBC that two Russian jets were in the sky above the convoy at the moment it was hit, but Moscow has rejected the accusation. But a senior USA official said Wednesday that Washington has determined with a very high degree of confidence that the attack was carried out by a Russian piloted aircraft.
Washington said the alleged air strike could only have been carried out by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime or his Russian allies and that Moscow must take responsibility either way. Defense Ministry spokesman Maj.
USA officials believe an attack on an aid convoy on Monday was carried out by Russian jets.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry tore into the Russian government during remarks to the United Nations Security Council, speaking of the bombing of a U.N. aid convoy that killed more than 20 people. The U.N. estimates that some 6 million Syrians live in such areas.
PARIS: An air strike on a clinic near Aleppo has killed four employees of an worldwide medical aid agency, the French group says on Wednesday.
Fierce fighting rocked the Ramussa district on the southwestern outskirts where the rebels briefly opened a relief line last month, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
In nearby Idlib, the Observatory said 12 civilians, including two children, were killed in at least eight air raids. The minister added that while the Syrian government forces have started their withdrawal, the militants have not followed suit.
Advertisement
State TV, quoting an unnamed military official, says the pilot has been rescued but doesn’t say what caused the plane to crash in the Qalamoun mountains, an area that straddles the border with Lebanon. “Currently, the Russian naval deployment to the east Mediterranean consists of no less than six battleships and three or four support vessels”, minister Sergei Shoigu said, Russian news agencies reported.
