In late December, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution on Syrian settlement, which reaffirmed the goals of the Vienna agreements to bring the entire spectrum of the political groups in the crisis-torn country to the negotiating table. The official told the press in Brussels that from Moscow’s 5,000 air strikes, around 70 percent hit rebels against President Bashar al-Assad instead of supporting initiatives of the US-led collation. Last month, human rights group Amnesty International said Russian airstrikes killed 200 Syrian civilians in two months previous year.
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Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu slammed Russian attacks against civilians in Syria on Monday. Rebel factions hold the area on this side of Aleppo, including the town hit today. Trucks carrying food and medical supplies reached Madaya near the Lebanese border and began to distribute aid as part of an agreement between warring sides, the United Nations and the Red Cross said.
In Idlib, it heads a coalition of Islamist and rebel groups known as the Army of Conquest which has expelled regime forces from the province.
A statement from Hollande, meanwhile, said that the regime’s willingness to negotiate was being judged by “its indiscriminate bombing and its policy of starving whole cities, in flagrant violation of worldwide law”.
However, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at 81.
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According to reports, Madaya residents have resorted to eating leaves, cats and dogs as no food has entered the town since October. There was widespread hunger and prices of basic foods such as rice had soared, with some people living off water and salt, they said. A teacher also died and there were reports of others wounded, some critically, the monitor said.
