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.
Advertisement
“This is a unsafe and bold attack against the Syrian state and army, and clear evidence that the United States and its allies support the terrorist group Daesh”, the statement said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
The ceasefire has been marred by violations throughout the week, however, including a lack of humanitarian aid deliveries and sporadic violence which resulted on Friday in the deaths of three civilians, including two children.
Syrian state news agency SANA says insurgents shelled government-held areas in the eastern neighborhood of Qaboun, wounding three people.
The ministry added that the Russian side had never been notified of U.S. plans to carry out bombings in the Deir al-Zor area.
Air strikes and clashes have tested a fragile ceasefire in Syria, as civilians wait for aid and tensions mount between the United States and Russian Federation, which brokered the deal.
Secretary of State John Kerry, who personally hammered out the agreement despite scepticism among some USA administration colleagues, told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that Washington would not start the agreed joint targeting of militants until aid begins to flow.
The Jabhat Fatah Al-Sham, formerly known as Nusra Front, and the Daesh terrorist groups, which have been outlawed in Russian Federation, are not part of the ceasefire deal.
Under the U.S. -Russia deal, the two countries will begin to set up a center to share intelligence and coordinate in targeting terrorist groups in Syria if the ceasefire holds for seven days and humanitarian aid is delivered.
Opposition activists and state media are reporting clashes between troops and insurgents as well as shelling in two neighborhoods of the Syrian capital, Damascus.
Syrian activists reported that Russian troops were deploying along the road, while the Russian Defense Ministry only mentioned it had military observers on the road.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighting is concentrated in the area of Jobar, next to Qaboun. The ceasefire does not apply to areas held by the group and the airstrikes would not be considered a violation of the deal. “It does deal with sensitive issues that we believe, if made public, could potentially be misused- I know Secretary [John] Kerry talked about the spoilers or would-be spoilers of this”.
Under the truce deal, the main route into divided Aleppo, the Castello Road, would be demilitarized and aid convoys would enter from Turkey.
The accusations come only days after the United States and Russian Federation reached a fragile ceasefire agreement in Syria that was created to lead to broader military cooperation between the two countries in Syria.
“The president didn’t staff his national security team with “yes” men and “yes” women. the president expects to receive advice based on their differing perspectives” and expertise, Earnest said.
Russian ambassador to the U.N. Vitaly Churkin said there was no point in briefing the council if the US did not want to say exactly what was in the deal.
Laerke also clarified United Nations comments a day earlier, saying that the United Nations does not require authorization from Syria’s government for cross-border aid deliveries under the terms of a Security Council resolution from 2014. Russian Federation intervened with its air force on the side of President Bashar al-Assad’s government a year ago, turning the tide of the war in his favor.
Advertisement
The Observatory said 3 Islamist fighters and 4 members of the regime forces were killed.
