Russia upset by muted response to Aleppo attack

He asked to hide his name out of fear for his safety. There is very little food. “There are families who have not had bread for three days”. “That’s small, not enough for breakfast”, he said.

Smoke rises after rebel fighters launch a mortar shell on a residential neighborhood in western Aleppo, Syria, Monday, Dec. 5, 2016.

“It is for the Russians to leave”, he told Agence France-Presse.

In an interview with Syria’s al-Watan newspaper on Thursday, President Bashar al-Assad rejected the offer of a humanitarian ceasefire by the rebel opposition as his army tightened the noose on the rebel-held part of the key city, according to Syrian state media.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says government forces took most of the once-populous neighborhood Tuesday following intense clashes. By summer the city was split in half, with the Nusra-dominated rebels in the east, and the military in the west.

Galitsky is the third Russian reported killed in Syria this week.

“[Russia and China] have chosen to veto not because of a lack of consultation, but due to their long-standing, misplaced faith in a despot who has killed almost half a million of his own people”, Rycroft said.

The arms are believed to be destined for the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah militant group, a close ally of the Syrian government and a fierce enemy of Israel.

The army and allied militiamen now hold three-quarters of east Aleppo, four years after the area fell from government control.

The battle of the city of Aleppo rages on, behind you can see the districts of Al-Sha’ar and Al-Sakhour recently retaken by the Syrian army.

The Syrian government has been demanding the complete evacuation of all rebels from eastern Aleppo, but locals involved in the negotiations with the rebel factions said this has not been seriously considered.

Al-Sukkari is in the southern part of eastern Aleppo, an area that has become home to the majority of the displaced civilians who stayed behind; Kallaseh is near the Old City. “The same could be said for the evacuation or the voluntary evacuation of fighters if there was an arrangement on that”.

Al-Khatib himself, who is the hospital director for the now debilitated Quds Hospital, said he would remain.

Plans to end the violence include a US-led initiative, floated on December 2, to guarantee safe passage of rebel forces out of the rebel-held eastern part of Aleppo. A hospital administrator in eastern Aleppo said medics have submitted lists of patients who need to be evacuated from hospitals.

The statement accused Russian Federation and Iran of failing to support a political process to end the bloodshed in Syria, instead concentrating on supporting the Assad regime.

Leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, UK and U.S. have issued a joint statement condemning the bombing of Aleppo and backing Syrian rebels’ calls for a ceasefire to allow in much-needed food and medicine supplies.

A U.S. state department spokeswoman said Lavrov and John Kerry had agreed to discuss a ceasefire that allows for the delivery of aid and the departure of civilians, but the “specific nature” of Saturday’s technical talks “are still to be worked out”.

They called on the U.N.to investigate reports of war crimes and accused Russian Federation of blocking efforts to halt the bloodshed.

After the Russian and Chinese veto at the Security Council, U.S. diplomats accused their Russian counterparts of stalling for time as Syrian government forces advance in Aleppo.

The cease-fire proposal was signed by the Aleppo command center, apparently a reference to the collection of factions fighting inside the eastern enclave.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict, said government rocket attacks continued overnight into Friday morning on frontline areas of east Aleppo. It lies on the western edge of the capital and had previously come under rebel fire.

This is the second loss of an aircraft from Russia’s only aircraft carrier since it arrived off Syria last month.