ALEPPO, Syria, Sept. 18 (UPI) — Syria’s cease-fire was on the brink of failure Sunday after warplanes struck rebel strongholds in eastern Aleppo, one day after the U.S.-led coalition bombed Syrian government troops.
On the sixth day of a cease-fire arranged by the United States and Russia, the strikes killed at least one woman and wounded several others. No one has claimed responsibility. They come a day after U.S. airstrikes in Syria, intended to target Islamic State fighters, hit a Syrian Army outpost, killing 62 soldiers.
The attacks put “a very big question mark” on the future of the truce, said Russia’s United Nations Ambassador Vitaly Churkin.
U.S. envoy Samantha Power criticized Russia for calling an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council.
“Russia really needs to stop the cheap points-scoring and the grandstanding and the stunts and focus on what matters, which is implementation of something we negotiated in good faith with them,” she told reporters.
Churkin said, “If what Ambassador Power has done today is any indication of their possible reaction then we are in serious trouble.”
Bouthaina Shaaban, a political and media adviser to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said Syria is abiding by the truce, something the United States should do.
“I ask the United States if they truly mean to target terrorists, where is the problem in coordinating their efforts with Russia, with the Syrian-Arab army, with anyone who is targeting terrorists?” asked Shaaban. “After all, this is the target for all of us, so why are they prolonging the agony of the Syrian people and allowing the terrorists, all this time, and all this space, to slaughter our people?”
