Russian Defense Ministry denied Thursday its involvement in Wednesday’s bombings in Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city, that caused the destruction of two hospitals, blaming USA aircraft for the attack instead.
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Ahmet Davutoglu said Wednesday he considered the U.N. Security Council “two-faced” for telling Turkey to open its borders while not moving “a finger to solve the Syria crisis” or to stop the Russian bombardments.
The Baghdad spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State group refuted the Russian claims and said the incident was an example of the Russian “indiscriminate” use of force.
Brett McGurk, the Obama administration’s point-man for defeating IS – also known as Isil and Isis – said Russia’s Aleppo offensive was having the perverse effect of helping the extremists by drawing local fighters away from the battle against IS and to the war against Syria’s government.
Capturing Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city before the war but now divided between rebel- and government-held sectors, would represent a major military victory for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and a symbolic prize for his ally, Russia, to help justify its bombing campaign in Syria.
The Syrian Kurdish group the Democratic Union Party (PYD) – an affiliate of the PKK terror group – opened an office in Moscow on Wednesday.
The YPG, a Kurdish group of some 30,000 fighters, has been among the most successful in taking the fight to the group that calls itself the Islamic State.
“We came there to fight terrorists, and that will be guiding us”, Russia’s USA ambassador Sergey Kislyak, told reporters this week.
The talk of new ceasefire plans comes as the US, Russia and more than a dozen other countries meet in Munich to try to halt five years of civil war.
“Before we go on February 25 those measures should be implemented in reality on the land”, said Riad Hijab, chief coordinator of the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), a Saudi-backed opposition umbrella group.
Turkey’s president has ratcheted up his criticism of the United States for not recognizing Syrian Kurdish forces as “terrorists”, saying Washington’s lack of knowledge of the groups operating in the region has led to bloodshed.
The border at Oncupinar, where tens of thousands fleeing the Aleppo assault have massed, remains closed to all but the seriously wounded and aid trucks and ambulances, with Turkish relief organisations delivering supplies to the Syrian side.
He said: “We are there legally, at the invitation of the Syrian government”.
Churkin said Russian Federation had been discussing a possible Syria ceasefire and humanitarian issues with the United States.
Up to 300,000 could be cut off from aid if the offensive by Syrian government forces and Iranian-backed militias encircles rebel-held eastern Aleppo, the United Nations has said.
New Zealand and Spain proposed a humanitarian pause to shore up prospects for the peace talks after the opposition said it would not attend without an end to starvation sieges and air strikes. It said the air base and a nearby village, also called Mannagh, fell late on Wednesday.
Fighters from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and its Arab allies expelled Islamist and rebel fighters from the Minnigh air base and adjacent town, north of Aleppo, the Observatory said.
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Meanwhile, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which constantly monitors the situation in the war-torn country, said more than 500 people have been killed in Aleppo in the last 10 days.
