The United Nations has suspended aid convoys in Syria after an airstrike hit a fleet of trucks carrying food to a rebel-held area near Aleppo.
The strike on a convoy of Syrian Red Crescent trucks carrying UN-supplied food was described by the International Committee of the Red Cross as a flagrant violation of international law. It took place as a week-old ceasefire brokered by Russia and the US collapsed amid a surge of Syrian government bombing. The attack destroyed 18 trucks laden with food intended for tens of thousands of people cut off by the war in a rural area west of Aleppo city. Initial reports said 20 people had died.
The ICRC president, Peter Maurer, said, “Yesterday’s attack was a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and it is unacceptable. Failing to protect humanitarian workers and structures might have serious repercussions on humanitarian work in the country.”
A separate Red Crescent convoy to Talbiseh in Homs province made its first delivery since July on Monday, carrying supplies for more than 80,000 people, but it was forced to stay there overnight due to intensified fighting, Mardini said.
Aid officials said the convoy west of Aleppo was hit from the air while unloading food at a warehouse in opposition-controlled Urem al-Kubra. Stephen O’Brien, the UN’s emergency relief coordinator, said the convoy had been clearly marked and its route had been provided to all parties in the conflict.
Meanwhile, bombs and shells rained down on eastern Aleppo, home to 250,000 people cut off in an opposition-controlled area. The ceasefire collapsed as global leaders convened at the UN in New York with the hope of consolidating the truce and working on longer-term peace efforts.
Foreign ministers in the International Syria Support Group were due to meet early on Tuesday morning before the start of the UN general assembly debate. US officials said the secretary of state, John Kerry, was trying to contact his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, to assess whether the ceasefire could be salvaged, but hopes of doing so were fading fast.
US blames Russia
A senior US official said, “At this point, the Russians have the burden of demonstrating very quickly their seriousness of purpose because otherwise, as you say, there’ll be nothing to extend and nothing to salvage.”
Hours before the convoy was hit, Kerry had pointed to the resumption of humanitarian deliveries as a sign that the ceasefire could be starting to bring benefits. But later on Monday, with the ceasefire just short of a week old, the Syrian army issued a statement blaming “terrorist groups” for hundreds of alleged violations and saying it would no longer observe the truce. The ceasefire “was supposed to be a real chance to stop the bloodshed, but the armed terrorist groups flouted this agreement,” the statement said.
However, both Kerry and the French foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, said Russia and its Syrian government allies had been responsible for the most serious violations.
Russia is flying a bombing campaign in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad, and there are suspicions that either Moscow or the Syrian forces it supports were responsible for the strike.
Moscow denies Russian involvement
Moscow denies Russian planes bombed aid convoy. Its military was looking into "information" about an air strike on a UN aid convoy in Syria after the regime announced an end to a week-long ceasefire.
"I don't think it is possible or correct to make any unsubstantiated conclusions," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
"Our military is currently verifying information about this strike and I hope they will receive concrete information from the ground and can then release a statement."
Peskov said that hope for a renewal of the ceasefire was "for now, very weak", stressing that a truce could only be resumed if "terrorists" halted their alleged bombardments of government forces. "The conditions are very simple. The shooting needs to stop and the terrorists need to stop attacking Syrian troops," he said.
Syria military denies bombing aid convoy
Syria's army on Tuesday denied bombing the convoy of aid trucks in the northern province of Aleppo the previous evening, an incident the UN said could amount to a war crime. "There is no truth to media reports that the Syrian army targeted a convoy of humanitarian aid in Aleppo province," state media said, citing a military source.
Syria's military declares end of cease-fire
Syria’s military on Monday declared an end to the week-long cease-fire brokered by US and Russian officials, blaming opposition fighters for repeated violations and launching attacks on rebel-held areas.
Before the military’s announcement, opposition fighters and activists also had accused the government of violating the cease-fire, which began at sundown September 12.
Late Monday, a United Nations and Syrian Arab Red Crescent aid convoy of 31 trucks was struck while delivering relief for 78,000 people in the rural area of Urem al-Kubra, west of the city of Aleppo, according to Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the secretary-general of the United Nations.
UN suspends aid convoys
The United Nations suspended aid convoys across Syria on Tuesday a day after an air strike hit relief trucks near the city of Aleppo, killing at least one aid worker and around 20 civilians, and destroying a warehouse and hospital.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which said it was postponing an aid convoy that had been set to deliver supplies to four besieged Syrian towns, warned of the consequences for millions of civilians in need.
Sources: Reuters, AP, AFP
