Airstrikes and clashes tested a fragile ceasefire in Syria into yesterday as civilians waited for aid and tensions mounted between the deal’s brokers Russia and the US.
In New York, the UN Security Council canceled an urgent meeting that had been called to discuss whether to endorse the truce, billed as the “last chance” to end the five-year war that has killed 300,000 people.
The closed-door consultations were scrapped after Moscow and Washington failed to agree over disclosing details of the ceasefire to the council.
US Secretary of State John Kerry had earlier called his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, and condemned “repeated and unacceptable delays of humanitarian aid,” US Department of State spokesman John Kirby said.
Kerry told Lavrov that Washington “expects Russia to use its influence on the [Syrian President Bashar al-] Assad regime to allow UN humanitarian convoys to reach Aleppo and other areas in need.
“The secretary made clear that the United States will not establish the Joint Implementation Center with Russia unless and until the agreed terms for humanitarian access are met,” Kirby said.
US President Barack Obama also voiced “deep concern” that the Syrian regime continued to block humanitarian aid. The ceasefire has been marred by a lack of aid deliveries and sporadic violence, including three civilians killed on Friday.
If the truce, which began on Monday, lasts seven days and humanitarian access is granted, Russia and the US are to work together to target extremists, including the Islamic State (IS) group and former al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front.
Under the truce deal, Moscow must put pressure on al-Assad and Washington must work with Syrian rebels to silence their guns.
Earlier on Friday, Russia said that only Moscow and the Syrian regime were fulfilling the deal.
“Although the ceasefire agreement is bilateral, only one side is truly implementing it,” Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
However, Russia said it was still ready to extend the truce set to expire late on Friday by 72 hours.
France and other council members have said they must first learn more details about the deal before considering whether to endorse it.
The Pentagon also on Friday said that dozens of US Special Operations Forces have been deployed to Syria’s border with Turkey to fight the IS, at Ankara’s request, in support of Turkey’s army and “vetted” Syrian rebels.
Two children were among three civilians killed on Friday in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun in Idlib Province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Khan Sheikhun, like most of the surrounding province, is controlled by an alliance of rebels and hardline extremists such as Fateh al-Sham.
Under the truce, fighting is to halt across the country except where extremists are present.
However, experts say the deal will be particularly difficult to implement in areas where Fateh al-Sham has formed strong alliances with local rebels.
Earlier in the day, a barrage of rocket fire and shelling could be heard coming from the rebel-held east Damascus district of Jobar, an AFP correspondent said.
Both the militant faction Faylaq al-Sham and Fateh al-Sham are thought to be present there.
The observatory said three extremist fighters and four members of the regime forces were killed.
The UN has called the truce a “critical window of opportunity” to deliver aid to rebel-held eastern districts of Aleppo, where about 250,000 civilians are under siege.
The UN had hoped that 40 trucks of food — enough to feed 80,000 people for one month — could be delivered there as soon as possible.
However, on Friday, the trucks were still waiting at the border with Turkey, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs spokesman David Swanson said.
Under the truce deal, the main route into divided Aleppo, the Castello Road, would be demilitarized and aid convoys would enter from Turkey.
A military source said Syria’s army “has carried out its pledge and handed over a number of points to the Russian monitoring teams,” but that rebel groups had not withdrawn from their positions.
“As humanitarians this is immensely frustrating. We’re here, we’re on the ground and we’re ready to move... The world is watching,” Swanson said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not