“The destination of this convoy was known to the Syrian regime and the Russian federation and yet these aid workers were killed in their attempt to provide relief to the Syrian people”, state department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.
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A Syrian activist group said 92 people have been killed in Syria since the start of the cease-fire.
Aid to desperate civilians was a key element of the US-Russia deal, but deliveries were minimal during the truce and cross-border assistance for besieged civilians in eastern parts of Aleppo city never entered Syrian territory.
The United States and Russian Federation have been essentially on opposing sides of the conflict but had recently agreed to the ceasefire and some cooperation.
“So let me just say this clearly: Russian Federation signed up to a cessation of hostilities”. Goals were modest, focused on holding onto what might be salvageable from a week-old truce that had at least temporarily reduced the bloodshed.
George Sabra, of the opposition High Negotiations Committee, said the ceasefire had been broken repeatedly and did not succeed in its main objective or opening roads for aid.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 12 were killed in the attack, mostly lorry drivers and Red Crescent workers.
A Syrian Arab Red Crescent warehouse was also hit, a United Nations spokesman said.
The convoy from the United Nations and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent was en route to the hard-to-reach town of Orum al-Kubra, in Aleppo province, to deliver humanitarian assistance to 78,000 people.
“Let me be clear: if this callous attack is found to be a deliberate targeting of humanitarians, it would amount to a war crime”, O’Brien said. Tuesday’s meeting wasn’t followed by any immediate statement.
Kerry called on Russian Federation to stop Assad from undermining the peace deal because “there are no good options” to stop the crisis in Syria, and that the options that do exist are “ugly”.
Instead, Obama is determined to continue the diplomacy with Russia, Assad’s chief backer.
“At this point the Russians have to demonstrate very quickly their seriousness of goal because otherwise there will be nothing to extend and nothing to salvage”, the official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, added.
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir pledged his country’s support for Syria’s opposition forces, along with representatives of Qatar, Turkey and European nations, and stressed that Assad can not remain in power, even though that issue has been delayed until the fighting wanes.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accused the Syrian government of killing the most civilians during the civil war and said “powerful patrons that keep feeding the war machine also have blood on their hands”.
Laerke said on Tuesday that the United Nations aid coordinator had received needed authorizations from the Syrian government in recent days to allow for aid convoys to proceed within Syria.
Air raids and shelling pounded key battlefronts in Syria on Tuesday, as outrage mounted over a strike on an aid convoy hours after Syria’s military declared an end to a week-long truce. The head of the centre and several others were badly injured.
US Secretary of State John Kerry had warned that the truce could be the “last chance” to save the country.
“The cease-fire is in danger, is being seriously affected”, he said, but only the US and Russian Federation could declare it over.
“The Russians made the agreement”.
Neither Kerry nor Lavrov spoke to reporters Tuesday morning at the Palace Hotel in NY.
“But the point – the important thing is the Russians need to control Assad, who evidently is indiscriminately bombing, including of humanitarian convoys”.
Ali Barakat, who also works for the Red Crescent, says Tuesday he threw himself on the floor when the first missile hit and killed his brother, Omar Barakat.
The air strikes appeared particularly heavy in insurgent-held areas west of Aleppo, near the rebel stronghold of Idlib province. On Tuesday, airstrikes continued and the observatory said that warplanes dropped 27 barrel bombs on different neighborhoods in Aleppo city.
In the northwestern province of Idlib Tuesday, activist Nayef Mustafa said planes circled over the town of Salqin, held by Syria’s former Al-Qaeda affiliate in alliance with Islamist rebels. “The regime and Russians are taking revenge on all the areas”, he said.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, center, sits with United Nations envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, right, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during the International Syria Support Group meeting Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016, in NY.
But like the Syrian army, the rebels spoke of returning to the battlefield.
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Shortly after Syria’s armed forces declared that the truce was dead and blamed opposition rebels for undermining it, Kerry noted that the cease-fire had not produced the desired reduction in violence and sustained delivery of humanitarian aid. “We have not had seven days of calm and of delivery of humanitarian goods”, Kerry said. Such deliveries began only on Monday and were available only in limited areas, he said. The convoy brought in food, water and hygiene supplies for up to 84,000 people, it said.
