-Russian brokered ceasefire had failed, and United Nations officials reported many dead and seriously wounded.
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They were killed “as they were unloading trucks carrying vital humanitarian aid”, the Syrian aid group and ICRC said in a joint statement.
Churkin said the USA airstrike put “a very big question mark” over the future of the cease-fire agreement and its timing is “frankly suspicious” because it comes just two days before the US and Russian Federation are supposed to implement an agreement on military coordination in Syria.
The comments come as the US attempts to extend a tenuous cease-fire that has greatly reduced violence in the war-torn country, but which the Syrian government has said it will not continue beyond an initial seven-day period that ended Monday.
Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General told CBS News’ Pamela Falk: “Today, a United Nations and Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) inter-agency convoy was delivering assistance for 78,000 people in the hard-to-reach town of Urem Al-Kubra, Aleppo governorate, which is west of Aleppo city”.
But most aid shipments were still waiting to go in.
The convoy reached Urem al-Kubra in the late morning to unload wheat flour, winter clothes and blankets, food and educational supplies for 78,000 people.
“Hundreds of thousands of people in Aleppo are waiting for this truce to allow aid to enter the city”, he said, adding that there are aid trucks still waiting on the Turkey-Syria border.
“Our outrage at this attack is enormous”, United Nations envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura told reporters.
Egeland added, “It is outrageous that it was hit while offloading at warehouses”.
“This was a hard and trying day in Syria that I think raises very serious questions about whether the Russians can deliver their end of the arrangement”, one said.
It reported 35 strikes in and around Aleppo since the truce ended. The military said the armed groups also took advantage of the truce to mobilise and arm themselves while attacking government-held areas.
US Secretary of State John Kerry will attempt to speak to Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov before Tuesday’s meeting of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG), he said.
“Well, the Syrians didn’t make the deal”, Kerry told reporters in NY.
At least 39 civilians were killed in overnight bombardment of Aleppo and the surrounding province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, and fresh clashes erupted on the city’s southern edges.
The deal came into effect on the evening of September 12, backed by world powers hoping that it could bring an end to Syria´s brutal five-year conflict.
Speaking Monday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, Kerry said some humanitarian assistance is moving but it’s too soon to say if it will meet the requirements of the cease-fire deal.
But from the start, the truce has been beset by difficulties and mutual accusations of violations.
Despite largely holding, the cease-fire has been repeatedly violated by both sides, and aid convoys have not reached besieged rebel-held neighborhoods of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and one-time commercial center, which has been the center of violence in recent months. The statement claimed five US aircraft took part in the airstrike.
The Observatory and Ahmad al-Masalmeh, an opposition activist based in the southern province of Daraa, said government helicopters dropped barrel bombs on the village of Dael, killing at least eight and wounding a large number of people. He says that amid the rebel violations, “it has become meaningless for the Syrian government forces to unilaterally observe the cease-fire”.
The ceasefire deal had three key components: fighting between government and rebel forces across Syria would halt, although strikes on Islamic State and other similar militant groups could continue. I believe that the truce is clinically dead..
Syria’s military command has declared the U.S-Russian brokered cease-fire over, blaming the country’s rebel groups for undermining the agreement.
This step (cease-fire) was to constitute a real chance to stop the bloodshed.
If confirmed, it would mark the first known direct American strike on Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.
“Much of the aid was destroyed”, the statement said.
Earlier, the Russian military denied it was behind the strikes.
On Sunday, the Syrian army showed NBC News damaged areas of government-held Western Aleppo.
The US-led raid on Saturday evening hit a Syrian army post near the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, where government forces have been fighting off IS jihadists since past year.
But it denied the bombing of Assad’s troops was deliberate, saying the United Kingdom would “not intentionally target Syrian military units”. This particular cease-fire was the second one negotiated by the partnership between the US and Russian Federation.
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Russia’s military said it was “senseless” for Syria’s army to respect the ceasefire unilaterally, while being attacked by militants. The Observatory gave a different death toll, saying 90 troops were killed in the strikes.
