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United Nations struggle to get aid moving in Syria despite ceacefire

Castello Road, nicknamed “Death Road” is said to be the only way into rebel-held neighborhoods in eastern Aleppo.

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Meanwhile, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov says attempts made by the USA to show the world that the “moderate opposition” in Syria is controllable have yet to prove successful so far. The third casualty, according to the Observatory, was a civilian who also died by sniper fire in the rebel-held part of Aleppo.

However, the United Nations has been unable to deliver aid to the city due to security concerns and refusals by the Syrian government.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest accused Russian Federation of failing to use its influence with Assad to get humanitarian aid moved to the besieged areas. “At the same time, the various U.S. State Department and Pentagon officials” statements about the prospects of “Russian fulfillment’ of the agreements reached on Syria are puzzling”.

But convoys still haven’t been able to get humanitarian aid to those in need, and such delivery is an important way to judge if a ceasefire is successful.

Earlier Friday, the “Wall Street Journal” reported that the U.S. had agreed to send 40 special operations troops to work alongside Turkish forces to fight militants with the so-called “Islamic State” (IS) in northern Syria.

The truce went into effect on September 12 and has been mostly holding across the war-torn country despite minor violations.

Russian Federation is a key ally of the Assad regime and is pushing for the UN Security Council to endorse the agreement, but France and other council members have stated that they first need to learn more details about the deal.

Staffan de Mistura, the United Nations special envoy for Syria, said Tuesday night that there was a “need of assurances that the drivers and the convoys will be unhindered and untouched”.

Nevertheless, the ceasefire appears to have led to a respite in violence in the five-year civil war.

The opposition has yet to officially sign on, and hours before the ceasefire began Assad said he was committed to recovering all of Syria.

The Islamic State-affiliated Amaq news agency also reported the strike, blaming Russian Federation.

In Geneva, the U.N.’s envoy to Syria, Staffan De Mistura, called humanitarian access the “second dividend” of the U.S. -Russia cease-fire deal, after tapering violence.

Several previous negotiated cease-fires and efforts to hold the peace talks have stalled.

Nevertheless, the ceasefire appears to have offered a respite in the civil war that’s killed an estimated 430,000 people since 2011 and touched off an global refugee crisis.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is based in Britain, said the fighting was actually in Jobar, to the south of Qaboun.

The U.S. will also need additional targeting experts to identify and approve airstrikes against the al Qaeda-linked Jabhat Fatah al Sham, formerly known as the Nusra Front.

“The ceasefire agreement, brokered by Russian Federation and the United States, was meant to take effect on Monday evening”.

Although U.S. officials have said the agreement is holding, they acknowledge that humanitarian aid is yet to reach besieged areas and blame the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the delay.

And pro-government civilians in villages north or Aleppo also staged a demonstration calling for aid deliveries to rebel-held areas to be blocked until a rebel sieges are lifted from other loyalist communities across Syria, especially the towns of Fua and Kafarya, in Idlib Province, according to a report by NOW News of Lebanon.

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He said the Syrian army has fully complied with the truce that went into force Monday, while the opposition units have violated it 144 times since then.

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