The White House is holding Russia responsible for an attack on an aid convoy delivering relief to an embattled area in Northwest Syria, whether it was Russian or Syrian aircraft that carried out the assault. SARC has continued deliveries to other areas of Syria, officials say. It would be a first step toward shifting the direction of the cease-fire, which originally called for the US and Russian militaries to begin working together to target the Islamic State group and the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front in Syria.
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The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss intelligence information publicly.
“While our hearts go out to [Monday’s] victims and their loved ones, United Nations humanitarian agencies are needed now more than ever, and will stay and deliver for the people of Syria”, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement.
The U.N. emergency-relief coordinator, Stephen O’Brien, said the attacks amounted to war crimes if the convoy was deliberately targeted.
“The planes have not left the city’s skies and the bombing is continuous and indiscriminate”, said one activist inside opposition-controlled eastern Aleppo.
The UN suspended all aid convoys in Syria in the wake of the attack.
Speaking at the UN Security Council high level meeting on Wednesday, Sergei Lavrov said a ceasefire brokered with the USA on September 9 will only work if there is a comprehensive approach with simultaneous steps taken by all parties involved in the conflict. The Observatory says the toll is likely to rise because rescue efforts are ongoing. “Somebody is trying to tell us humanitarian workers are not welcome in Syria, that we are a target, that we will be killed”. Mohammed Abu Jaafar, from the local forensics team, said one of the 24 was a fighter.
The two successive attacks were “not a coincidence”, UOSSM CEO Dr Zaydoun al Zoubi said.
Syrian President Bashar Assad blamed the US for the collapse of a cease-fire deal brokered with Russian Federation that went into effect on September 12.
Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said he wanted to see a thorough and impartial investigation into the attack on the aid convoy, after the Moscow released footage it said showed a pickup truck carrying a mortar travelling with the trucks. Defense Ministry spokesman Maj.
He took particular issue with Russia’s response to the bombing of an aid convey two days ago that killed 20 people in Aleppo, questioning why it has repeatedly changed its position.
Both Russia and Syria have denied responsibility for the attack.
The attack drew global condemnation and prompted the U.N.to suspend aid shipments in Syria, where some 6 million people live in besieged or hard-to-reach places.
Meanwhile, the International Business Times online reported that US Secretary of State, John Kerry, told the United Nations that the future of Syria was “hanging by a thread” and called for all planes in key parts of the war-torn country to be grounded.
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“We have resumed aid deliveries based on the humanitarian imperative”, he added.
