It was not immediately clear who carried out the airstrikes, though U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that “there are only two countries that have airplanes that are flying during the night or flying at all in that particular area – Russian Federation and Syria”.
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Russian Federation and the United States co-sponsored the ceasefire plan, with Kerry warning it could be the “last chance” to try to end Syria’s civil war, which has killed more than 300,000 people in five years.
Secretary of State John Kerry launched a blistering attack on Russia Wednesday for its actions in Syria, pointing to the bombing of a United Nations aid convoy that left more than 20 dead and its inability to stop continued Syrian air attacks.
USA officials on Tuesday said Russian planes were the only ones in the air just before an airstrike that destroyed 18 out of 31 trucks in a joint UN-Syrian Arab Red Crescent convoy delivering humanitarian aid to a remote area in the country.
Russian Federation denies it was responsible and says that terrorists carried out the attack, saying that analysis of drone footage of the strike showed that militants were following the convoy.
Syrian rebels and pro-government forces have been battling each other near Aleppo and Hama, hours after Russian Federation released drone footage which it said showed a militant weapon accompanying an aid convoy that was subsequently attacked. Americans later privately said it was a Russian Su-24 bomber, the New York Times reported.
Otherwise, he added, “We can’t preserve Syria as a single, united state”.
“I really think that we should all recognise and thank the humanitarian workers who are there”. The convoy was carrying United Nations aid.
A Russian military spokesman said a coalition drone was in the area when the aid trucks were destroyed, a claim the Pentagon denied.
It does look like an air strike, ‘ Thomas told reporters during a telephone briefing on Tuesday.
He said the attack began around 20 minutes after sunset on Monday and continued for two hours.
The first saw 20 civilians killed when aid trucks from the Syrian Red Crescent were bombed.
Johnson said his government had doubts as to the Syrian army’s ability in night-time flights, which according to him, left Russian involvement as the only explanation.
The group, known by its French initials UOSSM, said three nurses and two ambulance drivers were killed.
Meanwhile, Russian and regime forces resumed their bombardment of the rebel-held eastern half of Aleppo, with dozens of airstrikes pummeling the city.
The incident has been described as a possible war crime.
Russia’s foreign ministry told reporters at the United Nations the USA administration “has no facts” to support its assertions.
The town is besieged by government forces.
State TV, quoting an unnamed military official, says the pilot has been rescued but doesn’t say what caused the plane to crash in the Qalamoun mountains, an area that straddles the border with Lebanon.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said at least 13 people were killed in the attack, including nine militants, some of them belonging to the al-Qaida-linked Fatah al-Sham Front.
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Even before the strikes, some 40 United Nations trucks carrying relief supplies destined for rebel-held east Aleppo had remained stuck in a customs zone between the Turkish and Syrian borders since early last week. “The United States continues to believe there is a way forward that, although rocky and hard and uncertain, can provide the most viable path out of the carnage”, Kerry said.
