Syria truce plan in doldrums

Moscow stepped up its war of words with Washington on Sunday, saying airstrikes by a US-led coalition on the Syrian Army threatened the implementation of a US-Russian cease-fire plan for Syria and bordered on connivance with Daesh.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that US jets had killed more than 60 Syrian soldiers in the eastern Syrian city of Deir El-Zor in four air strikes by two F-16s and two A-10s coming from the direction of Iraq.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group with contacts across Syria, cited a military source at Deir El-Zor airport as saying at least 90 Syrian soldiers had been killed.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a strongly worded statement that the United States’ position on the incident was “nonconstructive and inarticulate.” “The actions of coalition pilots — if they, as we hope, were not taken on an order from Washington — are on the boundary between criminal negligence and connivance with Daesh terrorists,” the ministry said.
“We strongly urge Washington to exert the needed pressure on the illegal armed groups under its patronage to implement the cease-fire plan unconditionally. Otherwise the implementation of the entire package of the US-Russian accords reached in Geneva on Sept. 9 may be jeopardized.”
Washington further unnerved Moscow when its envoy to the United Nations abruptly left her seat as the Russian representative took the floor to condemn the airstrikes at an emergency US Security Council meeting.
“We are reaching a really terrifying conclusion for the whole world: That the White House is defending Daesh. Now there can be no doubts about that,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in comments aired by state TV.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said Zakharova should be embarrassed by that claim. Russia’s UN representative Vitaly Churkin said Russia had no “specific evidence” of the US colluding with Daesh militants.
The UN told Reuters aid trucks that had been expected to move to Aleppo on Sunday morning were once again being delayed. “It’s a tough moment,” one top aid official in Geneva told Reuters. “The UN convoys are highly politicized.”
The Al-Rahman Legion said in an online statement its fighters had destroyed a Syrian government tank and killed soldiers after government forces tried to storm Jobar for the second time this week.
On Sunday, Daesh said in an online statement it had shot down a warplane in Deir El-Zor with “anti-aircraft” guns, in the same area as the US-led coalition strikes hit the Syrian military on Saturday. Syria confirmed the loss of a warplane.

Source: Arab News