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UN to resume aid convoys within Syria

The US Secretary of State has called for all planes to be grounded in key areas of Syria to save the truce there, following an attack on an aid convoy.

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On Wednesday, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, said that a US predator drone was in the area at the time of the assault.

An airstrike in northern Syria killed four medics responding to an earlier bombing raid, a relief group said Wednesday, as the United Nations announced it would resume aid deliveries suspended after an attack on a convoy two days ago that killed 20 people. Russian Federation said it was not involved.

Separately, an air strike hit a medical centre near Aleppo on Tuesday night local time, killing four medics working for the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations (UOSSM), the group said.

The U.S. initially said it believed Russian or Syrian government jets were behind the attack on the aid convoy.

The US is blaming Russian Federation for the attack and Secretary of State John Kerry has called for the grounding of all aircraft.

The US-led coalition also admitted this week that its airstrikes over the weekend had killed 62 Syrian regime troops in eastern Syria.

The American top diplomat told the Council that a medical facility in Aleppo was hit in airstrikes on Tuesday and blamed Russian Federation and Syria for the attack.

In a tweet posted after his face-to-face meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Johnson said “only #Russia can bring #Syria conflict suffering to swift end”.

Damaged aid trucks are pictured after an airstrike on the rebel held Urm al-Kubra town, western Aleppo city.

The Russian defence ministry now says a U.S. drone was in the area where the aid convoy was struck.

One nurse remains in a critical condition and the medical centre was completely destroyed, UOSSM said in a statement (in French), adding that more victims are feared buried under the rubble.

Russian Federation has denied any responsibility for the attack, alluding Tuesday that it could have been carried out via ground fire by rebel factions opposing the government of Syrian President Bashar al Assad, like the Syrian Conquest Front.

The strike hit at least 18 of the 31 trucks in the convoy, which was bringing food relief from United Nations stores to the town of Urm al-Kubra, west of Aleppo, in an area controlled by rebel groups.

“All of the video footage demonstrates that the convoy caught fire, which strangely happened nearly at exactly the same time as militants started a large scale offensive on Aleppo”, Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement Tuesday.

This is the second time in two days that airstrikes have killed humanitarian workers in Syria.

Mr Key says today’s meeting was the starting point not the ending point and a resolution was still possible. Syria’s rebels do not have aircraft.

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.

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“I’ve heard that again and again”, a clearly angry Kerry said.

Five French medical charity staff killed in airstrike in Syria