The Syrian Army has announced a new offensive in the rebel-held east of Aleppo, days after a week-long ceasefire crumbled.
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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who met Wednesday night with his Russian counterpart, will attend today’s meeting of the International Syria Support Group, as will Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, setting up a potential confrontation between the top diplomats for the two powers.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based organisation that reports on the war, said it had recorded 47 deaths since Friday, including five children.
Ms Singer said the Suleiman al-Halabi pumping station, also located in the rebel-held east, was then switched off in retaliation – cutting water to 1.5 million people in government-held western parts of the city. Nor has the US found a diplomatic means to end the violence or ensure aid reaches besieged civilians.
“What’s happening now is annihilation in every sense of the word”, Selmo said.
A number of ambulances, he added, had been destroyed by the airstrikes. “There are still many under the rubble and we continue to pull them out”, he said.
Syrian army jets launched new airstrikes on rebel-held areas of Aleppo, hours after Syria’s government announced plans to take back the war-torn city, rescue workers said.
A high-ranking military source confirmed that the bombardment was in preparation for a ground assault.
“The question now is whether there remains any real chance of moving forward, because it is clear that we can not continue on the same path any longer”, Kerry said. He cited United States inability to control “terrorist” groups and a weekend attack that killed dozens of Syrian soldiers.
He said reinforcements had already been brought to Aleppo.
Talks in NY between Russian Federation and the United States, which supports opposition rebel forces, failed to result in a newly-brokered ceasefire. An army statement confirming the advance said “large numbers of terrorists” had been killed, using the regime’s terminology for any anti-Assad groups.
“The question now is whether there remains any real chance at moving forward, because it’s clear we can not continue on the same path any longer”, Kerry added.
More than 300,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began with anti-government protests in March 2011.
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Instead, he reiterated Moscow’s view that Washington was failing to keep its end of a September 9 ceasefire agreement, one element of which was to separate fighters of al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front from Western-backed opposition rebels.
