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Deadly airstrikes hit Syria as talks stall
Insurgents announced a new battle in Latakia earlier this week which they said was in response to ceasefire violations by the government side, launching fierce assaults there.
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And De Mistura said it was time to call a ministerial meeting of the major and regional powers of Syria as three legs of talks in danger.
De Mistura called for improved aid access to besieged areas, which he said would boost chances for salvaging the teetering cease-fire.
The United Nations and key sponsors of the Syria peace talks are trying to salvage a cease-fire and make progress on issues of humanitarian relief to keep the deadlocked negotiations alive. The Syrian leader is offering opposition figures he considers acceptable a limited role in a national unity government.
The UN special envoy for Syria has vowed to extend fragile peace talks into next week despite a walkout by the main armed opposition, a breakdown in a truce and signs that both sides are gearing up to escalate the five-year-old civil war.
The group said it had captured a Syrian pilot alive on Friday after shooting down his plane east of Damascus.
Reports say air strikes on rebel-held parts of Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, have killed at least 25 people and wounded dozens of others.
“Probably no one loses but them if they leave the negotiations”, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on a visit to Armenia, referring to the opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC).
The Syrian opposition has stepped away from indirect talks in Geneva, accusing the government of repeatedly violating a USA and Russia-brokered cease-fire that took effect in late February.
“We must not forget that what are trying to do in terms of vision and getting deeper into political transition can and needs to be helped by facts on the ground”, de Mistura stressed.
He said there was no reason to halt the talks over the departure of the HNC, an umbrella group comprising the main Syrian opposition and rebel factions that came together in Riyadh in December.
Ja’afari also commented on the humanitarian situation in Syria after shipments of medical and food supplies were delivered to 120,000 people in and near the militant-held town of Rastan, located 25 kilometers (16 miles), north of Homs, on Thursday.
Syria is now a patchwork of areas controlled by the government, an array of rebel groups, Islamic State, and the well-organised Kurdish YPG militia.
Syrian government forces and Kurdish fighters were meanwhile clashing for a third day in the northeastern city of Qamishli, with at least seven people killed.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says at least 10 people were killed in the airstrikes in Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood and other parts of the city. The Local Coordination Committees, an activist-operated media outlet, said at least 18 people were killed in Friday’s airstrikes.
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Government envoy Bashar Ja’afari on Friday lashed out at the opposition for shedding “crocodile tears” about alleged humanitarian aid lapses. The discrepancy couldn’t immediately be reconciled but divergent death tolls are common soon after attacks.