Banners read in Arabic: “Hunger better than humiliation, ‘ one banner read”.
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A significant reduction of violence for one week, accompanied by the delivery of aid, was to clear the way for the USA and Russian militaries coordinating separate airstrikes against the jihadist Nusra front, as well as the so-called Islamic State group.
Russian officials, meanwhile, said it was “senseless” for Assad’s regime to observe the cease-fire “unilaterally”.
“The United States would not intend to hit forces affiliated with the Syrian government, whatever their status”.
The United States, Russia and other key players in the Syria peace process are to meet Tuesday in NY, said the US State Department.
A United Nations convoy delivering aid to the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo is believed to have been hit by an air strike, hours after the country’s fragile ceasefire collapsed amid recriminations and renewed violence.
“It is outrageous that it was hit while offloading at warehouses”, he added. Initial estimates indicated that at least 18 of the 31 trucks in the convoy were hit.
But he said some aid was finally moving. A video of the attack showed huge balls of fire in a pitch black area, as ambulances arrived on the scene.
“The reality, according to the information we are getting from the ground, is that violations of the ceasefire are acts of the regime”, Mr Ayrault said.
UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Stephen O’Brien denounced the reported airstrike as a “callous attack” for which there “can be no explanation or excuse” as the convoy was “clearly marked as humanitarian” with the information on its notification being provided to “all parties of the conflict”.
Rebel-held eastern Aleppo city, with hundreds of thousands of residents, has been cut off from aid deliveries since July, despite the ceasefire, making the situation more hard.
“The attack by the terrorists was preceded by a massive artillery bombardment. from tanks and rocket systems”, it said.
“So we need to see what the Russians say”, Kerry said before meeting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef in NY. Earlier in the day, Kerry told reporters on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly that the truce was “holding but fragile”.
The convoy was delivering aid for 78,000 people in the hard-to-reach town of Urm al-Kubra in Aleppo Governorate, he said.
“Syria’s army announces the end of the freeze on fighting that began at 7:00 pm (1600 GMT) on September 12, 2016 in accordance with the US-Russia agreement”, the statement said.
The attack appeared to signal the imminent collapse of the latest effort by the United States and Russian Federation to halt Syria’s 5-1/2-year-old civil war. -Russian plan to set up a coordination center that would plan strikes against militants in the country. “I still don’t understand why we’re not trying to drop humanitarian supplies and relief to the people in Aleppo and other areas where people literally are starving to death”.
The truce brokered by Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov went into effect last Monday and meant to suspend the civil war for a week while allowing aid deliveries into rebel-held areas.
Still, the Syrian declaration was another signal that the diplomatic effort to halt the conflict, which has killed an estimated 500,000 people since 2011, was verging on failure.
The report could not be independently verified.
The Syrian military and rebels had already accused each other of violations.
While the attack on the SARC volunteers near Aleppo might cast doubt on the possibility of a long-standing ceasefire in Syria, the aid volunteers have always been calling on the additional protection for humanitarian workers. Sabra believes the brokered agreement is “clinically dead”. Damascus refers to all armed opposition groups as terrorists. Syria¿s military command has declared the U.S-Russian brokered cease-fire over, blaming the rebel groups for undermining it.
Syria’s armed forces “exercised the highest degree of self-restraint while facing violations by terrorist groups”, it said.
The United States, Russia and other key players in the Syria peace process will meet Tuesday in NY after Syria’s army announced the end of a week-long truce, a USA spokesman said.
Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests – which erupted as part of the Arab Spring uprisings – with unexpected ferocity. The United Nations and Red Cross said they were investigating the reports.
But Syria’s army said the seven-day truce period had ended.
American officials said, however, that conditions were still not right for U.S.
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While acknowledging numerous violations, Kirby said the truce, which took effect last Monday, had been responsible for “a measure of reduced violence”.
