U.N. suspends aid to Syria after convoy attacked
The United Nations suspended aid deliveries to Syria on Tuesday, hours after a convoy carrying humanitarian aid to rebel-held parts of Aleppo was attacked and about 20 people were killed.
Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said deliveries would be held pending a review of the security situation in the war-torn country.
He said it was “a very, very dark day… for humanitarians across the world,” the Associated Press reported.
The suspension of aid came soon after the Syrian military said a week-long cease-fire deal brokered by Russia and the United States was over after violations on all sides, including a U.S.-led coalition airstrike on Saturday that mistakenly killed dozens of Syrian soldiers.
Top U.S. official Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday the airstrike had not derailed the cease-fire agreement.
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The U.N. said at least 18 of 31 trucks in a U.N. and Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) convoy that was transporting aid to 78,000 people were hit while traveling to Urm al-Kubra in Aleppo on Monday.
It said a SARC warehouse was also hit and a SARC health clinic was reported to have been badly damaged. The nature of the attack wasn’t immediately clear.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said around 20 civilians and one SARC employee were killed as they unloaded trucks carrying vital aid.
“From what we know of yesterday's attack, there has been a flagrant violation of International Humanitarian Law which is totally unacceptable. Failing to respect and protect humanitarian workers and structures might have serious repercussions on ongoing humanitarian operations in the country, hence depriving millions of people from aid essential to their survival," said ICRC President Peter Maurer.
Aid convoy attacked as Syria declares end to week-old cease-fire
Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, in his opening speech to the General Assembly on Tuesday, criticized the attack.
“The humanitarians delivering lifesaving aid were heroes,” Ban said. “Those who bombed them were cowards.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based monitoring group, had reported Monday at least 12 aid workers and truck drivers were killed in an airstrike that was carried out by Syrian or Russian warplanes.
The Syrian military denied its forces targeted the convoy, Syrian state TV reported. Russia has not claimed responsibility for the attack.
Staffan de Mistura, the U.S. special envoy for Syria, said, "Our outrage at this attack is enormous ... the convoy was the outcome of a long process of permission and preparations to assist isolated civilians," in a statement emailed to Reuters.
The State Department said it was "outraged" by reports that the aid convoy was attacked, but is prepared to extend the cease-fire if Russia pressures the Syrian government to abide by terms of the truce and ends a pattern of attacking aid convoys.
The State Department said violence in the 5-year-old civil war had been reduced but only a small amount of aid has made it into the country since Sept. 12.
Under the ceasefire agreement, the United States and Russia would begin exploring military cooperation in Syria if violence is reduced and aid convoys are able to get to Aleppo and other besieged areas within a week after the cease-fire began.
The cease-fire, which does not apply to al-Qaeda linked militants or the Islamic State, is intended to halt fighting between the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad and an array of rebels seeking to overthrow him. That would allow U.S. and Russian military efforts to be directed at the two militant groups.
The Pentagon has not detailed what form of military cooperation the U.S. would take with Russia if a cessation of hostilities lasts.