US suspends contacts with Russia on Syria

Syrian government and allied forces have advanced toward Aleppo, pursuing their week-old offensive to take the rebel-held part of the city after dozens of overnight air strikes.

The military called for “all armed men in the eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo city to leave these neighborhoods and leave the civilian residents to live their lives normally”, the statement published on state-run media said.

The Syrian army told the insurgents to leave their positions, offering safe passage and aid supplies.

“The EU calls on all its partners and all the parties, to unite on this humanitarian initiative for Aleppo for the sake of humanity and the political future of Syria”. “They need our urgent action to bring an end to their living hell”, O’Brien said. The blockade means the eastern part of the city lacks medical supplies, equipment and fuel to the remaining health facilities, and no patients are able to get out.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was sharply critical of Syria and Russian Federation on October 2 during a speech in Birmingham.

Moscow said last week that it was continuing its year-long Syrian air campaign in spite of USA warnings that Washington would suspend talks unless Moscow stopped its assault on Aleppo.

Meanwhile, the fighting in Aleppo continued.

Lev Gudkov, the director of the independent polling organisation Levada Centre, said: “The problems that evoke an angry reaction in the western media, like the developments around Aleppo and the destruction of the humanitarian convoy, are nearly not noticed here because they’re not on television, or they’re shown as anti-Russian propaganda”.

The bloc will work with the United Nations to deliver “basic life-saving assistance to civilians in (rebel-held) East Aleppo”, EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini and humanitarian commissioner Christos Stylianides said in the statement.

He called for a 48-hour weekly pause in the fighting so aid could enter the city.

The two sides also clashed in Aleppo’s southern Sheikh Saeed neighborhood.

(CNN) – Yet another civilian hospital in Syria has been destroyed by airstrikes – this one in the country’s largest city.

On Saturday, European Parliament president Martin Schulz called the hospital bombing a “war crime”, tweeting that the worldwide community “must unite to prevent (the) city’s annihilation”.

The IS-linked Aamaq news agency reports that the extremist group has claimed responsibility for suicide attacks in the central Syrian city of Hama that killed two people and wounded 12.

Washington has accused Moscow of failing to rein in Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government forces and abetting his strikes on civilian targets.

“The Syrian government must stop the indiscriminate bombing, and Russian Federation as an indispensable political and military ally of Syria has the responsibility to exert the pressure to stop this”, he said.

It has been some of the worst violence since the March 2011 beginning of Syria’s conflict, which has killed more than 300,000 people and displaced over half the population.

In addition to Russia, Assad is also supported by Iranian ground forces and Shi’ite militia fighters from Lebanon and Iraq.