Cluster Bombs Leave Aleppo In Flames And Truce In Tatters

Secretary of State John Kerry was informed of the Syrian military’s decision to restart operations in Aleppo when his chief of staff showed him a headline on his BlackBerry during a meeting of the International Syrian Support Group on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in NY.

Kerry called for all warplanes to halt flights over aid routes, while Lavrov suggested a possible three-day pause in fighting to get the truce back on track.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Assad rejected USA accusations that Syrian or Russian planes struck an aid convoy in Aleppo this week and that his troops were preventing food from entering the city’s rebel-held areas.

The United Nations’ deputy envoy for Syria said Thursday that he hoped talks could resume in the coming weeks, despite “grim” events on the ground.

It was one of Kerry’s most bitter exchanges with Moscow as secretary of state, laced with invective and outrage. “Absent a major gesture like this, we don’t believe there is a point in making more promises, issuing more plans”.

The diametrically opposed views of Washington and Moscow were on full display at a U.N. Security Council meeting on Wednesday that had originally been called to enshrine the truce. Russia, said a senior administration official, offered little response.

The announcement of new strikes came as the U.S. and Russian Federation convened a last-ditch meeting in NY to save their ceasefire plan.

One official said the USA was “not sure” the gridlock around the failed cease-fire agreement could be resolved, while another official added it would take “extraordinary steps” for Russian Federation to preserve the agreement. “But that is very much on our minds”. Officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

The destruction in the contested city’s rebel-held eastern quarters was caused by a combination of air strikes and shelling.

The estimated 250,000 residents of east Aleppo, which rebels against Bashar al-Assad’s have held since 2012, have been living under siege since early September.

“We can’t be the only ones trying to hold this door open”, Kerry told reporters.

“Kerry’s got the reputation of Mr. Optimist”, an aide acknowledged.

When first asked if Russian Federation bombed the aid convoy, Dunford said it wasn’t certain which aircraft dropped the bombs. In the one gleam of hope, the United Nations announced that it had made a humanitarian delivery to one besieged town and was prepared to begin several more.

Syrian President Bashar Assad says US airstrikes on Syrian troops in the country’s east were “definitely intentional”, lasting for an hour, and blamed the USA for the collapse of a cease-fire deal brokered with Russian Federation.

Syria has branded the bungled bombing raid by Australian, US and other coalition aircraft that killed 83 Syrian soldiers as “unjustified brutal aggression”.

“There’s no reason to ground our aircraft”, Dunford told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

According to a leaked copy of the terms of the agreement, published Thursday by the Associated Press, it calls for “discussion and sharing of information necessary for the delineation of territories” controlled by the opposition and the Front for the Conquest of Syria, formerly al-Qaeda’s affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, and sharing “actionable Nusra and Daesh [Islamic State] targets.in a way that allows strikes to commence” as soon as the agreement is in place.

The military, he said, had no intention of forging an intelligence sharing arrangement with Russian Federation. The Pentagon has denied that it had any aircraft in the area. And when pressed for his own conclusion, Dunford said he believed Russian Federation launched the airstrike.

Throughout the conflict, Assad’s forces have been accused of bombing hospitals and civilians and choking opposition-held cities.

The International Syria Support Group was to consider a USA call for all warplanes to halt flights over aid routes following an attack on a humanitarian convoy near the besieged city of Aleppo, as well as a Russian suggestion for a three-day pause in fighting to get the “cessation of hostilities” back on track.

The Russian military “carefully studied the video recordings of the so-called activists from the scene and found no signs that any munitions hit the convoy”, Konashenkov said.

Assad, who spoke to the Associated Press, also rejected American accusations that a United Nations convoy destroyed Monday en route to Aleppo was hit by Syrian or Russian planes.