USA defence officials now believe that Russian planes dropped the bombs that destroyed a United Nations aid convoy that killed at least 20 people, the Guardian reported.
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Red Cross spokesman Benoit Carpentier told reporters that the director of the Syrian Red Crescent’s sub-branch was killed, along with a number of civilians.
Syrian government forces have been accused of carrying out “double tap” attacks throughout the 5-1/2 year war, placing paramedics and rescue workers in peril.
An airstrike on a medical facility in northern Syria has killed at least five staff members, the medical relief organization that runs the facility said Wednesday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group affirmed that nine rebel fighters were also dead.
The group, known by its French initials UOSSM, said three nurses and two ambulance drivers were killed. He didn’t specify which country’s planes carried out the strike. Russian Federation said it was not involved.
The U.N. emergency-relief coordinator, Stephen O’Brien, said the attacks amounted to war crimes if the convoy was deliberately targeted.
Meanwhile the Russians have released a series of conflicting statements in an effort to justify the strike on the United Nations convoy.
Russian Federation denies it totally and said that the terrorists carried out the attack.
Mr Johnson has met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov for the first time to discuss the attack, which left 20 civilians dead and which the U.S. has said it holds Russia responsible for.
Kerry said that all war planes over Syria should be grounded, to “prevent Syria from doing what it so often does in the past – to target civilians”.
U.S. military officials have accused Russian jets of having carried out the deadly attack.
The truce brokered by the United States and Russian Federation took effect on September 12 as part of a deal meant to allow aid to reach besieged areas. Syrians living in opposition areas will be disproportionately affected because the U.N.’s major warehouses are located in government-held areas.
“In any event, we hold the Russian government responsible for airstrikes in this space”.
The deal foresaw an end to fighting between President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and non-militant rebels, aid deliveries to besieged areas and, if the ceasefire held for seven days, cooperation between Moscow and Washington in battling IS and other extremist groups.
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In the latest upheaval, a Syrian warplane was shot down Wednesday during a combat mission against ISIS in the eastern Qalamoun area near the capital, Damascus, but the pilot rescued, Syrian state media reported, quoting a military source.
