The U.S. military will have to shift surveillance aircraft from other regions and increase the number of intelligence analysts to coordinate attacks with Russian Federation under the Syria cease-fire deal partly in order to target militants the U.S. has largely spared, senior officials say.
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Syrian government forces and rebels had yet to withdraw from a road needed to deliver aid to the city of Aleppo yesterday, threatening the most serious global peacemaking effort in months as the sides accused each other of violating a truce.
Konashenkov says the Syrian government forces are “the only party which is willing to hold talks, comply with the cease-fire and pull back the troops in order to allow United Nations humanitarian aid convoys”.
United Nations officials say they are awaiting word from Russian Federation and Syrian combatants on both sides that security and monitoring are in place to allow for deliveries of humanitarian aid into rebel-held parts of the city of Aleppo. Apart from seeing no more bombs or mortar shelling taking place, the agreement allows for humanitarian access.
US State Department spokesman Mark Toner on Wednesday acknowledged problems but said, “We’ve seen violations by both sides”.
“It’s particularly regrettable because we are losing time”, said de Mistura, emphasizing the importance of getting the convoys moving during the weeklong cease-fire and calling for immediate action to unblock aid deliveries.
In addition to rebel-controlled eastern Aleppo, UN convoys with the right permits are willing to go to Moadameya, Al-Waer, Talbiseh, Douma and other besieged areas, according to Egeland.
“The Russians were as disappointed as we are” and called for quick action on the matter, he said at the end of a meeting of the Geneva-based humanitarian task force monitoring developments.
But convoys still haven’t been able to get humanitarian aid to those in need, and such delivery is an important way to judge if a ceasefire is successful. The Castello Road has become a major frontline in the war.
One U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said initial reports appeared to confirm the incident involving a small group of U.S. forces.
“Grown, well-fed men still prevent us from coming to the real relief of civilians: women, children, wounded”, Egeland told the BBC.
The group says the children were killed in government-held areas and the civilian died in rebel-held Aleppo.
A tense cease-fire brokered by Moscow and Washington went into effect on Monday.
Activists say Syria’s cease-fire is still holding despite some violations but aid has not yet reached besieged rebel-held neighborhoods of the northern city of Aleppo.
The Observatory said government forces and opposition fighters were ready to withdraw from the Castello road, a main artery into Aleppo, to hand it over to Russian troops.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighting between government troops and rebels is concentrated in the neighborhood of Jobar, next to Qaboun where rebels have had a presence for years.
Aleppo has been the center of fighting in recent months and Syrian government forces and their allies launched a wide offensive earlier this month, capturing several areas south of the city and putting eastern rebel-held neighborhoods under siege for the second time in two months.
Earnest says the crux of the agreement has always been the need for Russian Federation to use its influence on Assad.
That casualty toll is according to Deir el-Zour 24, an activist collective. The war has killed at least 280,000 people and caused millions to flee, provoking the worst refugee crisis in Europe since World War II and helping to create a haven for Islamic State to conduct a global terror campaign.
It wasn’t known who carried out the airstrike.
“There is still much to be done by the United States in the separation between al-Nusra and the so-called moderate opposition groups”.
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A video posted online on Friday appeared to show Syrian rebels threatening to slaughter U.S. troops after they moved into the town of al-Rai with Turkish troops ahead of an offensive against a nearby town controlled by IS.
