It was not immediately clear who carried out the airstrikes, though U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that “there are only two countries that have airplanes that are flying during the night or flying at all in that particular area – Russian Federation and Syria”.
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The United States has reached the preliminary conclusion that Russian warplanes bombed the aid convoy, U.S. officials have told CNN, and say that Russia is responsible, whether it was Russian planes – or the Syrian regime’s – that struck.
The U.N. suspended aid deliveries after a strike on a humanitarian convoy Monday that killed at least 20 people.
A senior US official says that Washington has determined with a very high degree of confidence that an attack on a humanitarian aid convoy in Syria on Monday was carried out by a Russian piloted aircraft.
The aid workers were part of International Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations, a Paris humanitarian group that operates in territory held by rebels near the besieged city of Aleppo.
On the ground, rebels battled the forces of the government of President Bashar al-Assad on major frontlines near Aleppo and Hama, and air strikes reportedly killed a dozen people including four medical workers.
The UN has said it is ready to resume aid convoys in Syria after halting operations in response to a deadly attack on an aid mission on Monday.
But both Russian Federation and Syria have denied responsibility for the attack, with Moscow furious at the “unsubstantiated, hasty accusations” from the United States.
After the meeting, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Russian Federation and Syria were the only two potential “culprits” and the United Kingdom had “doubts” that Syria would be able to carry out such a strike at night. “… The United States continues to believe there is a way forward that – although rocky and hard and uncertain – can provide the most viable path out of the carnage”.
It did not initially call for Russian planes to cease flying in any specific areas, but after the aid convoy attack, Kerry said there are few options remaining for them to prove they are committed to ending the violence in the country and allowing civilians to get much-needed humanitarian assistance.
“New Zealand has convened today’s high level meeting on Syria for one simple reason”, Mr Key told the Security Council.
“I listened to my colleague from Russian Federation and I sort of felt like we’re in a parallel universe here”, Kerry said of Lavrov’s account of the war.
Jens Laerke, the spokesman for the United Nations humanitarian aid agency, says Wednesday that “several” convoys are expected as early as Thursday, but didn’t specify where.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said nine militants, some of them belonging to the Fatah al-Sham Front, an al-Qaida-linked group previously known as the Nusra Front, were also killed in the “double tap” attack.
Konashenkov said Russian drones had followed the convoy until it successfully delivered its load, but had stopped surveillance after that.
The International Syrian Contact Group includes both the U.S. and Russian Federation.
“Currently the Russian naval deployment to the east Mediterranean consists of no less than six battleships and three or four support vessels”, he said. “I’ve heard that again and again”, a clearly angry Kerry said.
Heavy air raids have continued in Syria, especially in and around Aleppo.
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“The strikes on the 16th of September by the coalition against the government positions in Deir el- Zor were a clear violation of the cessation of hostilities and, immediately after those strikes, ISIL began assaults against the government forces”, Lavrov told the Security Council.
