Air raids rocked northern Syria’s Aleppo province on Tuesday, hours after 18 trucks in a UN humanitarian aid convoy were hit in an area west of Aleppo city, killing at least 12 people.
“As an immediate security measure, other convoy movements in Syria have been suspended for the time being pending further assessment of the security situation,” UN humanitarian aid spokesman Jens Laerke told a news conference in Geneva on Tuesday, adding the UN had recently received permission from the Syrian government to deliver aid to all besieged areas in the country.
The United States said it was unclear if it was a Russian or Syrian plane that hit the 31-truck UN aid convoy late on Monday, but officials placed the blame on Moscow, a key ally of embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
“The Americans are firmly blaming the Russians, saying they’re not reining in Damascus,” Dekker said.
The convoy, part of a routine inter-agency dispatch operated by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, was hit in rural western Aleppo province.
The Syrian Civil Defense, a volunteer rescue group known as the White Helmets that operates in rebel-held areas, posted images of several vehicles on fire and a video of the attack showed huge balls of fireagainst the night sky as ambulances arrived on the scene.
In the wake of Monday’s aid convoy strike, the UN said it was suspending all convoy movement in Syria, and International Committee of the Red Cross President Peter Maurer said the attack could have “serious repercussions” on humanitarian work in the country.
The new wave of bloodshed came after the Syrian army unilaterally declared the end of a week-long truce brokered by the US and Moscow. The government and the rebels traded blame over the collapse, each accusing the other side of hundreds of breaches.
“If this callous attack is found to be a deliberate targeting of humanitarians, it would amount to a war crime,” said Stephen O’Brien, the top UN humanitarian official, adding that the warring parties had been told about the aid convoy.
The Syrian Arab Red Crescent was also hit during Monday’s strike, as was a warehouse run by the group.
SARC volunteers were among the at least 28 civilians killed in the Aleppo area in the first hours after violence resumed following the formal end of the truce, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The rebel-held east of Aleppo city, home to some 300,000 people, has been cut off from aid deliveries since July despite the ceasefire.
Ceasefire collapse
“There’s been… renewed air strikes in Aleppo, in the eastern, rebel-held part of the city. Also further to north in Handarat. Also reports of air strikes in Talbiseh in Homs further south,” Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker, reporting from Gaziantep along the Turkey-Syria border, said.Ground battles between pro-government forces and rebel fighters raged on Tuesday morning on the southwestern outskirts of Aleppo city near the strategic Ramosa military complex, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, as air raids pounded the northern province.
“This is an area yesterday that some aid actually managed to get into. So… looking at the ground it has, unfortunately, become business as usual.”
With the week-old ceasefire under threat, both Moscow and Washington indicated a desire to try and salvage the agreement that had brought a brief respite to at least some parts the country.
The US State Department said that it was ready to work with Russia to strengthen the terms of the agreement and expand deliveries of humanitarian aid.
Spokesman John Kirby said Russia, who the US has deemed responsible for ensuring the Syrian government compliance, should clarify the Syrian position.
A Russian Foreign Ministry statement late on Monday night appeared to signal that the deal could still be salvaged, saying that the failure by the rebels in Syria to respect the ceasefire threatened to thwart the agreement.
Al Jazeera’s Dekker said a meeting of the International Syria Support Group, chaired by Russia and US, was set to take place in New York on Tuesday.
“The language coming out of the US is that they want to try and extend the cessation of hostilities. We’ve heard nothing from Lavrov, nothing officially from the Russians,” said Dekker.
“It really does explain why Syrians are so skeptical. Because every time they are told that something is in the works and that this is the beginning of a political process to end this war that’s now into its sixth year and every time it fails.”
The ceasefire came into effect on September 12. Under terms of the agreement, the successful completion of seven days of calm and humanitarian aid deliveries would be followed by an ambitious second-stage plan to set up a joint US-Russian coordination center to plan military strikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and a Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front.
But from the start, the truce has been beset by difficulties and mutual accusations of violations.
Aid deliveries destined for the besieged eastern districts of Aleppo have not reached their destination. The UN accused the government of obstructing the delivery, while Russian officials said rebels opened fire at the delivery roads.
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