A Central Command official told The New York Times that Russian Federation notified the USA military that they were hitting Syrian troops 20 minutes after the bombardment began. The Syrian opposition and the United Nations have condemned the surrender deals, proclaimed as forced displacement, but they have proved an effective way for the government to slowly reassert its authority in areas that had slipped beyond its control during the rebellion.
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A senior US State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters: “The ball is very much in the Russians’ court to come back to us with some ideas that are serious, that would be above and beyond the types of things they have been willing to agree to in the past with regard to air activities over large parts of Syria”.
By Friday morning, one centre in the Ansari neighbourhood in the southern part of the rebel-held district had been put out of service after it was hit.
Some had attempted to present the ceasefire as if only the Syrian government should be taking steps, he said, but the opposition also needed to stop fighting.
Ibrahim Alhaj, a member of the Syrian Civil Defence, confirmed the government troop movements.
The Observatory said there were also air raids on the north of Aleppo city, and reported clashes on the frontline, near the old city center.
US officials believe Russian aircraft were responsible for the strike, but Moscow has denied involvement and the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that a US Predator drone was in the area when the convoy was attacked.
The airstrike happened hours after a US-led strike killed 60 Syrian soldiers at the weekend.
The rebels and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring body described raids by sophisticated jets that they said must belong to Russian Federation.
The Syrian army added that civilians who leave the rebel-held districts of Aleppo and head towards government-held checkpoints would not be arrested and would be considered as refugees.
Syrian forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad at a military complex in southwestern Aleppo on September 5.
It comes after a seven-day ceasefire expired Sunday, with no extension in place and both sides accusing the other of truce violations.
The ISSG, chaired by US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, was set up to press for a ceasefire and a negotiated end to the war.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks during a Security Council meeting, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2016, at United Nations headquarters.
Victoria University Professor of Strategic Studies Robert Ayson told Paul Henry on Friday the “strutting contest” between the United States and Russian Federation is partly to blame for the lack of progress in ending the war, which has raged on for six years now.
The capitulation of the rebels in Waer means that the city of Homs is now entirely under government control for the first time in almost five years.
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“It was a long, painful, hard and disappointing meeting”, the U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura told reporters after the meeting of the International Syria Support Group, which includes about two dozen major and regional powers.
