The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said five people were killed in heavy rebel shelling of government-held areas of Aleppo, which was not included in a temporary truce announced by the Syrian government last week.
Advertisement
De Mistura is scheduled to travel to Moscow Monday night to meet with the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, for further discussions on the Syrian situation.
The escalation came as the diplomatic focus moved to Moscow where the United Nations envoy for Syria started talks in efforts to restore a piecemeal cease-fire that would also include the contested northern city. He said four people were killed and more than 30 wounded in Dubeet hospital alone, adding that half the casualties at the hospital were women and children.
Syrian state TV said shells hit a government-held area during morning rush hour, killing seven people and wounding at least 35, while activists reported two dead in a rebel neighbourhood.
Washington and Moscow, co-sponsors of the ceasefire and peace talks, have announced a new joint center in Geneva to monitor the ceasefire, to be staffed around the clock by USA and Russian officers.
The truce has collapsed in Aleppo where more than 250 people have been killed since 22 April.
Referring to the bombing of the al-Quds hospital and other clinics in the eastern, rebel-controlled part of the city, Kerry said: “The regime has clearly indicated a willingness over a period of time now to attack first responders, to attack healthcare workers and rescue workers”.
Mr Kerry said Washington would press moderate rebels to separate themselves from the extremist group Jabhat Al Nusra in Aleppo.
Diplomatic efforts were set to continue with De Mistura joining the foreign ministers of Germany and France for talks with Syria’s main opposition leader in Berlin on Wednesday.
More than three dozen rebel factions said on Saturday that they would not respect the truce, unless the government agreed to extend it over the whole country.
Almost 30 air strikes have hit rebel-held areas of Aleppo as a temporary “calm” declared by Syria’s military took effect around Damascus and in the northwest.
“Currently, active negotiations are underway to establish a “regime of silence” in Aleppo province” – the head of Moscow’s coordination centre in Syria Lieutenant General Sergei Kuralenko says talks to include Aleppo in the ceasefire have begun.
The government first declared its cease-fire on Friday around Damascus, the capital’s eastern Ghouta suburbs, and the coastal Latakia region, in the wake of two weeks of rising violence that spoiled a previous truce brokered by the US and Russian Federation in late February.
The source said the Turkish military returned fire hitting IS targets.
“One of these measures concerns preparations for the upcoming meeting” that the group will hold.
An AFP correspondent in the city saw the heavily damaged hospital building towering over the charred remains of a parked vehicle.
Advertisement
Aleppo has borne the brunt of increased fighting that has all but destroyed a February ceasefire and killed almost 250 people in the northern city since April 22, a monitoring group said.
