A United Nations spokesman said at least 18 of 31 trucks had been hit but could not confirm it was by an air strike.
Advertisement
A rebel official told the Reuters news agency that the truce, brokered by the USA and Russian Federation, had ended, and there was no hope that the eastern Aleppo aid would be delivered.
And in eastern Aleppo, a resident reached by Reuters said there had been dozens of blasts.
The attack comes as the militants from Jabhat-Al-Nusra have been pushing on the Syrian army positions in southwest Aleppo and residential areas on Monday, shelling them with tanks, missile systems and mortar fire.
While the attack on the SARC volunteers near Aleppo might cast doubt on the possibility of a long-standing ceasefire in Syria, the aid volunteers have always been calling on the additional protection for humanitarian workers.
Chief US diplomat Kerry will try to speak to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in NY before Tuesday’s meeting of the International Syria Support Group but statements from Syrian and Russian military officials on the ground appeared to bury the deal.
The week-old attempt at a ceasefire, negotiated by US secretary of state John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, could be the final attempt by US President Barack Obama to negotiate an end to Syria’s civil war. There was no immediate comment from the government.
The bloodiest day for civilians was Sunday, September 18, when a barrel bomb attack killed 10 in a southern rebel-held town and one woman died in the first raids on Aleppo since the truce started. “The last two were barrel bombs”, he said, the sound of an explosion audible in the background. “The regime and Russians are taking revenge on all the areas”, he said.
The Syrian Red Crescent said the convoy had been making a routine delivery from Aleppo to rural rebel-held areas.
The Syrian ceasefire formally ended today, with the Syrian military announcing it was no longer sustainable amid growing rebel strikes.
The coordinator of Syria’s main opposition group said on Monday the ceasefire never took hold and called on the world to put an end to the “criminality” of the Syrian government.
George Sabra, of the opposition High Negotiations Committee, said on Monday that the truce has been repeatedly violated and did not succeed in its main objective or opening roads for aid.
Aid was delivered to the besieged town of Talbiseh in Homs province on Monday, the Red Cross said, for the first time since July.
But most aid shipments envisaged under the truce have yet to go in.
The UN also wants to deliver aid to other hard-to-reach parts of the country, but says it has not received the necessary permissions from the government to proceed.
Assad called that incident “flagrant aggression”.
A significant reduction of violence for one week, accompanied by the delivery of aid, was to clear the way for the US and Russian militaries coordinating separate airstrikes against the jihadist Nusra front, as well as the so-called Islamic State group.
Advertisement
“I call on all parties to the conflict, once again, to take all necessary measures to protect humanitarian actors, civilians and civilian infrastructure as required by global humanitarian law”, said U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Stephen O’Brien.
