“Coalition forces believed they were striking a Daesh fighting position”, said a Pentagon statement, referring to the extremist group in its Arabic acronym.
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Russian Federation on Thursday said government forces had begun to pull out from the area and accused rebel fighters of failing to withdraw as agreed.
US Secretary of State John Kerry had earlier called his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and condemned “repeated and unacceptable delays of humanitarian aid”, State Department spokesman John Kirby said.
Lt. Gen. Viktor Poznikhir of the Russian military’s General Staff declared a readiness to extend the cease-fire for another 72 hours, adding that Moscow expects Washington to take “resolute action” to end violations by the US -backed opposition units to prevent the situation from “spinning out of control”.
“As of the third day (of the truce), only the Syrian army is observing the regime of silence”.
He said the U.S. needed to do more to persuade “moderate” rebel groups to disassociate themselves from Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, which is the strongest jihadist rebel group and is excluded from the ceasefire.
The clashes were some of the most serious since a U.S. -Russia-brokered cease-fire went into effect this week.
Russia, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said it is prepared to extend the ceasefire, originally set for a week, for three more days.
Activists reported the cease-fire was holding despite some violations, though the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group warned the rate of violations had escalated and three civilians were killed, including two children.
But promised authorisation from Damascus for large-scale humanitarian convoys had not yet been received.
An estimated 250,000 people still live in east Aleppo.
The trucks contain flour for more than 150,000 people and food rations for 35,000 people for a month, a United Nations spokesman said.
“That being said, the clock is ticking and time is of the essence”.
Russian Federation accused the U.S. “of not doing their part to get rebel forces to pull back from Castello Road, that vital link that aid trucks will eventually travel along into besieged Aleppo”, Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford, reporting from Gaziantep along the Turkey-Syria border, said.
The route is a vital supply line into the rebel-held eastern side of Aleppo. “Shelling continues, people are dying and houses are being destroyed”, senior commander Viktor Poznikhir said.
According to USA officials, if Russian Federation and the regime fulfill their obligations under the arrangement, Washington and Moscow will hold bilateral talks on potential military cooperation against Daesh and also Nusrah Front, which recently detached itself with al-Qaeda and rebranded itself as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.
There remains deep skepticism about whether the truce will hold.
The opposition has yet to officially sign the deal, and hours before the ceasefire began Assad said he was committed to recovering all of Syria.
Part of the agreement between the two Cold War adversaries would be the creation of a “Joint Implementation Centre” to share targeting information for airstrikes should the truce hold until 19 September.
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If the deal holds, it could open the door to new peace talks.
