At least 22 civilians were killed in government bombings over the last week, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition monitoring group.
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“The situation”, Dujarric said, “continues to evolve and we are unable at this time to independently verify casualties”. “We’re waiting to get the full download from our team that is meeting now with the Russians”.
The Syrian government has carried out 35 airstrikes since the ceasefire ended, the group says.
Earlier on Monday Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi of the Russian military’s General Staff said in a briefing that Damascus had fulfilled its obligations.
Twenty U.N. trucks filled with food, medicine, and other aid have sat ready to deploy from the Turkey border for a week now. More than 2,000 people were killed in 40 days of fighting in the city, including 700 civilians, among them 160 children, according to a Syrian activist group.
Shells and bombs rained down on rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Monday soon after Syria’s army declared an end to a week-long ceasefire agreed between Russian Federation and the United States.
“Well, the Syrians didn’t make the deal”, Kerry told reporters in NY.
The State Department called on Russian Federation to use its influence over Assad to extend the cease-fire and make way for aid.
-Russian brokered cease-fire had failed, and United Nations officials reported many dead and seriously wounded. “We need to see where we are, and then we’ll make a judgment”. “Taking into account the fact that the terms of the cease-fire are not respected by militants, we consider observing it unilaterally by Syrian government forces is senseless”.
“The United States is outraged by reports that a humanitarian aid convoy was bombed near Aleppo today”, State Department spokesman John Kirby said. Russian Federation has said the Syrian army had begun to withdraw from the road, but insurgent groups in Aleppo have said they have seen no such move and would not pull back from their own positions around the road until it did so.
The Syrian military statement placed the blame on the rebel groups.
Monday’s attack came just hours after the Syrian government declared a cease-fire between their forces and rebels to be at an end.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said it was too early to call the ceasefire finished, and the United Nations said that only Washington and Moscow could declare it over, as they were the ones who had originally agreed it. Washington said it was working to extend the truce but called on Russian Federation to first clarify the Syrian army’s statement that it was over. He said the US was willing to extend the cease-fire despite the statement from Assad’s government.
Sirens wailed as ambulances zipped through the eastern rebel-held half of the divided city, the correspondent said, describing the bombardment as “non-stop”.
Russia, which is working with the Syrian government and wants Assad to remain in power, as well as U.S. Coalition forces to defeat ISIS, said the refusal by the U.S.to share intelligence was the cause of the fatal mistake.
The truce “was supposed to be a real chance to stop the bloodshed, but the armed terrorist groups flouted this agreement”, Monday’s army statement said.
The initial hope was that the ceasefire would help bring a much-needed calm to the country’s hotspots and that it would create a safe enough environment to deliver humanitarian aid to those in need.
The current tensions come on the heels of the weekend air strikes by the US-led coalition on Syrian army positions near Deir Az Zor.
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The Prime Minister said the United Kingdom would co-operate with the investigation by the US-led coalition into the attack on Saturday near the eastern city of Deir el-Zour. The ceasefire stipulated in the agreement took effect September 12.
