ALEPPO, Syria: The United Nations suspended all humanitarian convoys in Syria on Tuesday following a deadly air strike on aid trucks, as fighting intensified after the regime declared an end to a week-long truce.
Both Syria and Russia denied they were behind the raid on the convoy near northern city Aleppo, which the Red Cross said killed “around 20 civilians” including an employee of the Syrian Red Crescent.
Air raids and shelling meanwhile pounded key battlefronts across the country dimming hopes that the fraught ceasefire brokered by Moscow and Washington could be revived.
Key players including the United States and Russia were meeting in New York Tuesday in an effort to salvage the peace process, which US Secretary of State John Kerry had warned could be the “last chance” to end Syria’s civil war.
Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov opened a meeting of the 23-nation International Syria Support Group (ISSG) in New York, where world leaders have gathered for the UN General Assembly.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon opened the assembly debate with a call to end the fighting in Syria.
“I appeal to all those with influence to end the fighting and get talks started,” Ban said.
Monday’s strike on the aid convoy provoked outrage from UN officials, with aid chief Stephen O’Brien warning that if deliberate “it would amount to a war crime”.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said Monday night’s raid destroyed at least 18 of 31 vehicles, as well as a Red Crescent warehouse in Orum al-Kubra in Syria’s Aleppo province.
“Much of the aid was destroyed,” the IFRC said in a statement, stressing that “the attack deprives thousands of civilians of much-needed food and medical assistance.”
Omar Barakat, who headed the local Red Crescent branch, was wounded in the strike and later died, IFRC spokesman Benoit Carpentier told reporters in Geneva.
