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Russia: US Wanted to Include Al-Qaida’s Nusra in Aleppo Truce

Still, “there have been reports of continued fighting in some locations”, spokesman Mark Toner cautioned.

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Toner said Washington and Moscow would monitor the truce closely.

He also said a meeting of the International Syria Support Group could be convened in the coming weeks.

“The test is Aleppo now”, he said after meeting the German and French foreign ministers in Berlin on Wednesday.

The Syrian government had excluded Aleppo from a temporary ceasefire that started Saturday in the capital Damascus, nearby Eastern Ghouta and the coastal area of Latakia.

Almost 300 people have been killed during this latest spate of violence in the city.

“The United States will do its part with the opposition”, he said.

Under pressure from Russian Federation and the United States, the Syrian army agreed on Wednesday, May 4, to respect a two-day truce in the war-ravaged city of Aleppo. “Nobody is saying that there isn’t”.

The 22-member bloc denounced the “the Syrian regime’s brutal actions against unarmed civilian residents” in Aleppo, calling the attacks “a massacre”, in a resolution announced after the meeting.

Sporadic fighting was reported in Aleppo until the final moments of the ceasefire arrangement.

Rebel fighters initially advanced from the western suburbs of the city into government-held districts but were pushed back by Wednesday morning, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

“Some of these acts amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity”, O’Brien said in NY.

Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter also on Wednesday called on all countries in the fight against “Islamic State” (IS) jihadis in Syria and Iraq to offer more military resources.

Ayrault said he was concerned over the breakdown in negotiations following the surge of violence in Aleppo, adding that Assad’s government bears full responsibility for undermining the ceasefire. “There can be no explanation or excuse, no reason or rationale, for waging war on civilians”. The U.S. hopes Russian Federation can persuade the Syrian leader to reduce violence.

“They will be analyzing proposals, and they will work together to make sure that any violations are nipped in the bud”.

I do not think the strikes will stop, because the decision to stop is not in the hands of (President Bashar al-Assad, ) but in those of his Russian ally.

“…All of this while still paying lip service to the cessation of hostilities”.

Syrians look at the damage after rockets fired by militants hit al-Dabbeet hospital in the government-controlled neighborhood of Muhafaza in the northwestern city of Aleppo on May 3, 2016. Along with a photo he said was taken after the supposed new strike, showing identical damage, he said they “indicate quite clearly that all ostensible “eyewitness accounts” ” about another airstrike were false.

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The United Nations and the United States charged that the hospital was struck by government aircraft. “This has not occurred so far”.

Ferocious fighting in Syria's Aleppo after rebel offensive