Bashar al Assad’s forces dropped barrel bombs and targeted Aleoppo with airstrikes, virtually dissolving the truce Washington and Moscow had reached in the hope of stemming bloodshed in the Arab country.
Reports said two people were killed in Aleppo in the airstrikes late Monday. The strikes targeted areas controlled by groups fighting the Assad regime.
The regime’s forces also hit a convoy transporting aid for the besieged people, who have been with essential food and medicine supplies for months.
The killings coincide with the UN General Assembly session, where nations are showing solidarity with millions of refugees – one of the several repercussion of the Syrian civil war, which has also enabled ISIS to unleash its terror. World leaders will also discuss ways to address ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Africa.
UN Special envoy for Syria expressed frustration with the latest attacks.
“Our outrage at this attack is enormous . . . the convoy was the outcome of a long process of permission and preparations to assist isolated civilians,” Staffan de Mistura said.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who had put much effort in concluding a ceasefire with Russsia, contended only the two countries, as leaders of the international group, could decide about the ceasefire.
“So we need to see what the Russians say, but the point, the important thing, is the Russians need to control Assad who evidently is indiscriminately bombing, including of humanitarian convoys,” Kerry said in New York.
The UN says since March 2011 – when President Assad began using brutal force against Arab Spring protesters demanding democracy- more than a quarter of a million Syrians have been killed and over one million have been injured.
Around 4.8 million Syrians have been forced to leave the country, and 6.5 million are internally displaced, making Syria the largest displacement crisis globally. The Syrian war has particularly afflicted a generation of children, killing thousands and leaving psychological wounds on still many more thousands surviving at the mercy of their hosts and donors.
In 2016, an estimated 13.5 million people, including six million children, are in need of humanitarian assistance. Of these 5.47 million people are in hard-to-reach areas, including close to 600,000 people in 18 besieged areas.
