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WAR REPORT
US warns Syria aid convoy strike could end Russia deal
by Staff Writers
United Nations, United States (AFP) Sept 20, 2016


Air raids, shelling across Syria after army declares truce over
Aleppo, Syria (AFP) Sept 20, 2016 - Air strikes and shelling pounded multiple battlefronts in Syria into the early hours of Tuesday after the army declared a fraught week-long ceasefire over, AFP correspondents and activists reported.

In battleground second city Aleppo, air raids and artillery fire hit rebel-held districts until approximately 2:00 am (2300 GMT Monday), an AFP correspondent said.

Residents spent the night huddled together in their apartments, sharing news about the collapsing truce by messenger.

On Tuesday morning, loud booms were heard intermittently across the city.

In the government-held west of the city, an AFP correspondent reported the sound of shelling in the Mogambo district.

Aleppo -- like other major front lines in Syria -- had been relatively calm for the first few days after the truce brokered by Moscow and Washington came into effect on September 12.

Violence slowly escalated late last week, culminating at the weekend in deadly air strikes on Aleppo and a US-led raid that killed scores of Syrian soldiers fighting the Islamic State group in the east.

Fighting also intensified in the rebel-held eastern suburbs of Damascus, where the army announced a major military operation on Monday just hours before declaring the ceasefire over.

An AFP correspondent in the area heard clashes through the night into Tuesday morning.

Artillery fire also hit the rebel-held central town of Talbisseh, activist Hassaan Abu Nuh said.

In the northwestern province of Idlib, activist Nayef Mustafa said that planes had circled over the town of Salqin, which is held by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate in alliance with Islamist rebels.

"It's calm now, but there was machinegun fire by military aircraft overnight," Mustafa told AFP.

"The ceasefire has collapsed and people are getting ready to be hit by barrel bombs. This is our situation."

The US-Russia truce deal had been billed as the best chance to put an end to more than five years of conflict, in which more than 300,000 people have been killed.

The army declared an end to its ceasefire on Monday evening.

Hours later, a convoy delivering aid to besieged civilians in Aleppo province was hit by an air strike, which killed 12 Red Crescent volunteers and drivers, and destroyed at least 18 trucks.

Bitter Syrian opposition says world ignoring plight
New York (AFP) Sept 19, 2016 - Leaders of Syria's embattled opposition reacted with bitter scorn Monday, accusing the world of ignoring their people's plight as a week-long truce in their country's civil war collapsed.

Addressing a political meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the head of the opposition umbrella group known as the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) said the ceasefire had never been respected anyway.

"Enough is enough," Riad Hijab told international diplomats. "The world is content to look on without reacting, when it should assume its responsibilities and put an end to the actions of this criminal regime."

The 23-nation International Syria Support Group (ISSG) is to meet in New York on Tuesday to push for a negotiated end to the five-year-old war that has left more than 300,000 Syrians dead and driven millions from their homes.

But already on Monday, Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad's military had announced an end to a week-old ceasefire that was negotiated between Washington, which backs the rebels, and Moscow, which favors the regime.

"How many UN Security Council resolutions have been passed? They were in vain," Hijab declared.

"Russia and Iran are spilling Syrian blood, the regime bombards hospitals and drops thousands of barrel bombs and other banned weapons. The world just looks on."

A deadly air strike on a UN aid convoy by Syrian or Russian planes calls into question Moscow's will to try to salvage a ceasefire, the United States said Monday.

The attack could only have been carried out by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime or his Russian allies and Moscow must take responsibility either way, US officials said.

"The United States is outraged by reports that a humanitarian aid convoy was bombed near Aleppo today," State Department spokesman John Kirby said.

Last week, the United States was forced to apologize after it weakened the ceasefire by bombing Syrian troops, but Washington said it had been accidental.

US officials said there could be no similar excuse from Russia for the targeting of non-combatant aid workers.

"The destination of this convoy was known to the Syrian regime and the Russian Federation," Kirby said.

"And yet these aid workers were killed in their attempt to provide relief to the Syrian people," he added.

"Given the egregious violation of the cessation of hostilities we will reassess the future prospects for cooperation with Russia."

Senior US officials went further, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"The Russians have the responsibility to refrain from taking such actions themselves, but they also have the responsibility to keep the regime from doing it," one said.

"So either way, the burden is on the Russians to demonstrate quickly and in a significant way that they are committed to this process," the official added.

US Secretary of State John Kerry will try to speak to Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov before Tuesday's meeting of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG).

But if Moscow is not serious about re-committing to what had been a seven-day lull in fighting, there may be no peace process to salvage, the senior official warned.

"Our sense is that what happened today has dealt a serious blow to our efforts to bring peace to Syria," another US official said, also speaking on condition of anonymity.

Russia and the United States agreed a deal during talks in Geneva earlier this month to pressure both Moscow's ally Assad and US-backed rebels to obey a ceasefire.

If the truce had lasted a week, the US and Russian militaries were to set up a joint targeting cell to hunt jihadist groups not party to the cessation of hostilities.

But Assad's forces continued to block shipments of aid to rebel-held areas, and on Monday declared an end to the truce, accusing the opposition of breaking it in turn.

Then the United Nations and monitors complained that a UN and Red Crescent aid convoy had been attacked, destroying at least 18 trucks and leaving 12 aid workers dead.

Kerry, Lavrov and ministers from the 23-nation ISSG are to meet Tuesday alongside the UN General Assembly in New York to decide what steps to take next for peace.

Kerry had earlier indicated that he wants to press on with the Russian-US process, but fellow US officials sounded more downbeat after the strike on the convoy.


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