UN suspends all aid convoy movements in Syria after airstrike
The United Nations has suspended aid convoys in Syria after
an airstrike hit a fleet of trucks carrying food to a rebel-held area near Aleppo on Monday.
The UN humanitarian aid spokesman Jens Laerke said: “As an immediate security measure, other convoy movements in
Syria have been suspended for the time being, pending further assessment of the security situation.”
He said the UN had only recently received permission from the Syrian government to deliver aid to besieged areas of the country.
The strike on a convoy of Syrian Red Crescent trucks carrying UN-supplied food was described by the International Committee of the Red Cross as a flagrant violation of international law. It took place as a week-old ceasefire brokered by
Russia and the US collapsed amid a surge of Syrian government bombing.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it appeared that the attack was carried out by either Syrian or Russian aircraft. The attack destroyed 18 trucks laden with food intended for tens of thousands of people cut off by the war in a rural area west of Aleppo city. Initial reports said 12 people had died.
Robert Mardini, the ICRC director for the
Middle East and North Africa, told Reuters that the Aleppo director for the Syrian Red Crescent, Omar Barakat, was among the dead.
“The team is in shock,” Mardini said. “Omar was badly injured and rescue team could not reach him for two hours. When he was evacuated he could not survive his wounds.”
Plans for aid convoys to rebel-besieged Foua and Kefraya in Idlib, and government-blockaded Madaya and Zabadani near the Lebanese border, had been put on hold as a result, he said.
The ICRC president, Peter Maurer, said: “Yesterday’s attack was a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and it is unacceptable. Failing to protect humanitarian workers and structures might have serious repercussions on humanitarian work in the country.”
A separate Red Crescent/ICRC convoy to Talbiseh in Homs province made its first delivery since July on Monday, carrying supplies for more than 80,000 people, but it was forced to stay there overnight due to intensified fighting, Mardini said.
Aid officials said the convoy west of Aleppo was hit from the air while unloading food at a warehouse in opposition-controlled Urem al-Kubra.
Stephen O’Brien, the UN’s emergency relief coordinator, said the convoy had been clearly marked and its route had been provided to all parties in the conflict.
“Let me be clear: if this callous attack is found to be a deliberate targeting of humanitarians, it would amount to a war crime,”
O’Brien said. “I call for an immediate, impartial and independent investigation into this deadly incident. The perpetrators should know that they will one day be held accountable for violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.”
The US said that, regardless of whether Russian planes were involved, it blamed Moscow for the attack because it was responsible under the ceasefire agreement for reining in Bashar al-Assad’s government forces.
The US state department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement: “The destination of this convoy was known to the Syrian regime and the Russian federation and yet these aid workers were killed in their attempt to provide relief to the Syrian people.
“The United States will raise this issue directly with Russia. Given the egregious violation of the cessation of hostilities we will reassess the future prospects for cooperation with Russia.”
Meanwhile, bombs and shells rained down on eastern Aleppo, home to 250,000 people cut off in an opposition-controlled area. The ceasefire collapsed as global leaders convened at the UN in New York with the hope of consolidating the truce and working on longer-term peace efforts.
Foreign ministers in the International Syria Support Group were due to meet early on Tuesday morning before the start of the UN general assembly debate. US officials said the secretary of state,
John Kerry, was trying to contact his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, to assess whether the ceasefire could be salvaged, but hopes of doing so were fading fast.
A senior US official said: “At this point, the Russians have the burden of demonstrating very quickly their seriousness of purpose because otherwise, as you say, there’ll be nothing to extend and nothing to salvage.”
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Russia’s military was checking reports of the strikes near Aleppo and was expected to say something about the matter later in the day.
Hours before the convoy was hit, Kerry had pointed to the resumption of humanitarian deliveries as a sign that the ceasefire could be starting to bring benefits. But later on Monday, with the ceasefire just short of a week old, the Syrian army issued a statement blaming “terrorist groups” for hundreds of alleged violations and saying it would no longer observe the truce. The ceasefire “was supposed to be a real chance to stop the bloodshed, but the armed terrorist groups flouted this agreement,” the statement said.
However, both Kerry and the French foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, said Russia and its Syrian government allies had been responsible for the most serious violations.
“The reality, according to the information we are getting from the ground, is that violations of the ceasefire are acts of the regime,” Ayrault told reporters at the sidelines of a UN meeting in New York.
The Syrian army declaration followed the bombing of
army positions around Deirez-Zour by western coalition forces, including the US, Britain, Denmark and Australia. The countries involved have said the strikes were aimed at Islamic State frontline positions and unintentionally hit Syrian troops as they fought to take those positions on Thardamountain.
Russia has said the strikes killed 62 Syrian soldiers and injured about 100 others, while the Syrian government said the bombing was done “on purpose and planned in advance”.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/20/un-suspends-all-aid-convoy-movements-in-syria-after-airstrike