Kerry wants Russia, Syria to ground jets

Airstrike on medical facility in Aleppo kills 4 staff

WAR OF WORDS OVER SYRIA INTENSIFIES

US SECRETARY of State John Kerry demanded on Wednesday that Russia and the Syrian government immediately halt flights over Syrian battle zones, in what he called a last chance to salvage a collapsing ceasefire and find a way “out of the carnage”.

An impassioned Kerry faced off with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the UN Security Council in New York, in an unusually heated televised showdown, saying the bombing of an aid convoy in Syria raised “profound doubt whether Russia and the Assad regime can or will live up to” ceasefire obligations.

On the ground, rebels battled the forces of the government of President Bashar al-assad on major frontlines near Aleppo and Hama, and air strikes reportedly killed a dozen people including four medical workers.

“I emphasise this to Russia. The United States continues to believe there is a way forward that, although rocky and difficult and uncertain, can provide the most viable path out of the carnage,” Kerry said.

“If we allow spoilers to choose the path for us, the path of escalation ... then make no mistake my friends: the next time we convene here we’re going to be facing a Middle East with even more refugees, with more dead, with more displaced, with more extremists and more suffering on an even greater scale.”

He mocked what he described as absurd Russian explanations for an attack on an aid convoy on Monday that Washington says was carried out by Russian warplanes. A Russian statement said the trucks had “caught fire”, which Kerry called tantamount to blaming “spontaneous combustion”.

Lavrov, for his part, called for an independent investigation into the convoy attack, and said all parties needed to take simultaneous steps to stop the war.

Overnight fighting was focused in areas that control access to Aleppo city, where the rebel-held east has been besieged by Russian and Iranian-backed pro-government forces and completely encircled for all but a few weeks since July.

The army reported carrying out airstrikes on seven areas near Aleppo. The Observatory said one air strike killed four medical workers and at least nine rebel fighters in the insurgent-held town of Khan Touman south of Aleppo. The medical staff killed were working for the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations (UOSSM), it said. UOSSM confirmed in a statement that at least four of its staff had been killed. REUTERS