A couple of months ago, the Syrian army captured Castello, placing a full siege on the rebel-held areas in Aleppo city. The fighting and mutual accusations of violations sparked concern that the fragile cease-fire, which brought some relief to millions of people across the war-ravaged country, may be starting to fray.
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The United States accused Syria of blocking aid and warned it will not boost military cooperation with Russian Federation unless Damascus honours the truce agreement.
A statement from US Central Command said the coalition conferred with the Russian military before the strike.
De Mistura says Thursday the Syrian government has not provided needed “facilitation letters” to allow for the start of United Nations -led aid convoys expected under the new cease-fire agreement. Russian news agencies cited another official, Lt. Gen. Vladimir Savchenko, as saying there had been 55 violations throughout the country.
Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army rebels are pushing south in northern Syria from the towns of al-Rai and Azaz toward the Islamic State-held town of al-Bab, supported by tanks and jets, security sources said, clashing with the jihadist group.
“If we determine that we did indeed strike Syrian military personnel, that was not our intention”. The statement claimed five US aircraft took part in the airstrike.
The Russian Defence Ministry said on Saturday that USA -led coalition planes had bombed Syrian troops fighting Islamic State militants near the airport in Deir al-Zor, killing 62 soldiers and wounding about 100 more. But he says there’s been less success implementing the part of the agreement that is meant to facilitate the delivery humanitarian assistance.
If the aid starts flowing and the cease-fire holds, the expectations are that such a climate would pave the way for the restart of Syria peace talks that collapsed earlier this year.
“And yet in the face of none of these atrocities has Russian Federation expressed outrage nor has it demanded investigations nor has it ever called for a Saturday night emergency consultation in the Security Council”.
The council had been due to discuss whether to endorse the truce. She noted that Russian Federation had never called an emergency consultation to condemn Assad’s regime “for some of the most systematic atrocities we have seen in a generation” – striking civilian targets, preventing humanitarian aid from reaching starving people, using chemical weapons or torturing tens of thousands of prisoners.
She said the strikes threatened to undermine the ceasefire in Syria brokered by Russian Federation, which has been aiding Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war, and the United States, which has backed some rebel groups.
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United States Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power expressed regret on Saturday (Sept 17) over the US-led coalition strike on a Syrian army post, but dismissed Russia’s call for an emergency Security Council meeting as a “stunt”.
