On the heels of U.S.-led airstrikes that killed scores of Syrian soldiers, the Syrian military has said that a week-old ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia is over.
In a statement issued Monday, the Syrian military put the blame for the collapse on “armed terrorist groups,” a phrase, Reuters reports, that the Syrian government uses “to refer to all insurgents fighting against it.”
The agreement, Bloomberg reports,
Separate reporting by Reuters also notes that the ceasefire was “[a]lready widely violated since it took effect.”
Responding to the announcement, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said to “wait” before making an assessment, as “trucks [with humanitarian aid] are moving today to maybe eight locations or more.”
United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O’Brien on Monday expressed disappointment that aid had not reached eastern Aleppo, as a convoy remains in Turkey.
“The people of Syria have suffered long enough. Millions of Syrian civilians continue to face horrific deprivation and violence, especially those trapped in besieged and hard-to-reach areas,” he said.
The Syrian military also denounced the Saturday strikes by the U.S., which had U.K. backing, as a “serious and blatant attack on Syria and its military,” and “firm proof of the U.S. support of Daesh [IS or Islamic State] and other terrorist groups.”
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