UN suspends all aid after convoy hit

The UN has suspended all aid convoys in Syria after a devastating attack on its lorries near Aleppo on Monday. The attack at Urum al-Kubra destroyed 18 of 31 lorries and killed about 20 civilians, including a senior local official of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, named as Omar Barakat.

Russia and Syria have both insisted that their forces were not involved.

The UN would not confirm what type of attack took place, saying “we are not in a position to determine whether these were in fact air strikes”.

Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that after studying video taken at the scene they “did not find any signs of munitions hitting the convoy”. He said, “Everything shown in the video is the direct result of a fire which mysteriously began at the same time as a large scale rebel attack on Aleppo.”

The Syrian military, quoted by state media, said there was “no truth” to reports that the army had targeted the convoy.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking alongside his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, insisted the ceasefire deal was “not dead”, following talks on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on New York on Tuesday. UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura also said there was still hope.

[BBC]

This entry was posted in Humanitarian Aid, International Cooperation by Grant Montgomery.