Spokesman John Kirby said Russian Federation, which is responsible for ensuring Syria’s compliance, should clarify the Syrian position.
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The United States and Russian Federation are on opposite sides of the 5-1/2-year-old civil war, with Moscow backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Washington supporting rebels seeking to topple him. “We know that people will begin to starve, as they ration the products that they have in the city at the moment”.
A week-old truce in Syria brokered by the U.S. and Russian Federation appears close to unravelling, with alleged violations by government and rebel forces mounting.
Asked about the army’s statement, Kerry told reporters in NY that the seven days of calm and aid deliveries envisaged in the truce had not yet taken place.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said that more than 60 Syrian troops were killed in four airstrikes near the city of Deir al-Zour, the Interfax news agency reported.
Then again, since we don’t seem to know one target from another, maybe it’s just as well. “But we don’t have all the facts at this point”.
The ceasefire ran into trouble at the weekend when rebel-held districts of Aleppo came under a barrage of air strikes and the US-led coalition killed dozens of Syrian soldiers in an attack that Washington said was unintentional.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has said Washington “acknowledges and regrets” the fatal airstrike on Syrian government troops by coalition jets, but blamed Syrian President Assad for “bombing people indiscriminately” and blocking the delivery of humanitarian aid.
Russia, which is allied to Assad’s government, denied that either its air force or that of the Syrian armed forces was responsible.
“Considering that the conditions of the ceasefire are not being respected by the rebels, we consider it pointless for the Syrian government forces to respect it unilaterally”, Lt Gen Sergei Rudskoi said in a televised statement.
The Syrian military said earlier on Monday that the ceasefire had expired.
Erdogan’s announcement comes as a fragile cease-fire, brokered by the United States and Russian Federation and now in its seventh day, has mostly held despite numerous violations.
He said USA and Russian officials were meeting in Geneva to try to sort out aid deliveries to Aleppo and other besieged communities.
Kirby says that although there were truce violations by all sides, the level of violence overall had been reduced over the past week. But he said some aid was finally moving.
Aid was delivered to the besieged town of Talbiseh in Homs province on Monday, the Red Cross said, for the first time since July.
France’s foreign minister criticized both the United States and Russian Federation for the cease-fire pact that excluded the global community, saying it must have wide support if it’s going to be implemented.
It renewed old pledges that the army will continue to fight terrorism until restoring peace and stability to Syria.
Some Syrian rebel groups also expressed pessimism about the ceasefire.
“We have not had seven days of calm and of delivery of humanitarian goods”, Kerry said.
Speaking to Iran’s deputy foreign minister Hossein Jaberi Ansari, Assad accused world powers of supporting “terrorist organisations” in Syria like the Islamic State group.
Both the Syrian rebels, supported by the US -led coalition, and Syrian government troops, backed by Russian Federation, accused each other of violating the ceasefire since it took effect last Monday. The statement said the rebels wasted a “real chance” to stop the bloodshed.
“If we did get this wrong, which it looks we did, it’s not something we meant to do”, the official said, adding that Centcom plans to investigate how targeting personnel could have confused a Syrian military unit with Islamic State fighters.
More than 300,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since the Syria conflict started in 2011 with anti-government protests. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists inside the country, reported the casualty figures.
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“Only the Syrian government forces have observed the cessation of hostilities over the past six days since it came into effect… while militants attacks against the Syrian army are on the rise”, the ministry’s spokesman Maj.
