Rebels have held the city since 2012.
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Wednesday’s toll was even higher, the activist said, with least 50 people being killed and others injured after Syrian forces struck nearly every neighborhood in eastern Aleppo and in the countryside. Hamza al-Khatib, the director of a hospital in the rebel-held east, told Reuters the death toll was 45.
That activist described the airstrikes as being far more intense and destructive than they were prior to the ceasefire.
Video: What is Russian Federation telling citizens about Syria?
Kerry said the United States and allies who supported opposition groups were prepared to reciprocate but only if Russian Federation showed it was serious about implementing the ceasefire agreement.
The strike erupted in a diplomatic row between the U.S. and Russian Federation, the ceasefire’s brokers, at an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Saturday.
Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin said the strike was “an extraordinary display of American heavy-handedness” and accused the U.S. of purposefully derailing coordination efforts.
US Ambassador Samantha Power hit back, describing Russia’s reaction as “a stunt replete with moralism and grandstanding” that was “uniquely cynical and hypocritical”.
The White Helmets, a Syrian volunteer rescue group, says dozens of air strikes were carried out in Aleppo on Friday morning.
“The simple reality is that we can’t resolve a crisis if one side is unwilling to do what is necessary to avoid escalation”, Kerry told reporters after the meeting.
Assad cast doubt on the intentions of the United States in Syria, saying it “doesn’t have the will” to fight militants.
Kerry spoke to reporters after the U.S., Russia, Iran and other members of the International Syria Support Group met in NY on Thursday to discuss a truce that went into effect September 12 but quickly unraveled.
Mr Kerry’s statement, after three days of private and public diplomacy on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, provided an ominous endnote to a week diplomats had hoped would be a major capstone towards peace.
Kerry called for Russian Federation and President Bashar al-Assad to halt flights over Syrian battle zones, a call which was echoed by several other nations.
The strike killed about 20 people, including the Red Crescent’s regional director Omar Barakat, said the International Committee of the Red Cross.
No party has claimed responsibility for the strike.
“All of our information indicates clearly that this was an airstrike”.
The International Syria Support Group includes the U.S., Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran, China, France, EU, Arab League and several other European and Arab countries. Russian Federation and Syria denied involvement, while the USA said it was an air strike and those two countries were the only ones with planes in the air at the time.
A military source said the bombardment was in preparation for a ground operation.
The UN resumed its aid deliveries on Thursday, after trucks were temporarily halted due to the deadly strike on a convoy in the north of Syria.
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Syrians in eastern Aleppo and other besieged cities and towns are facing a dire shortage of food, medicine and other supplies. Like all previous ceasefires, this deal collapsed as well, prolonging the five-and-a-half year old war that killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced half the population in the country.
