Syria regime keeps up Aleppo assault after UN fails on truce

The UN Security Council failed to agree on a truce in the besieged city of Aleppo during a meeting on Saturday after Russia vetoed a French resolution and the Security Council rejected Mosco's rival draft.

Members of the United Nations Security Council failed to agree on two draft resolutions at their meeting at the UN headquarters in New York, US on October 8, 2016, deepening divisions between Moscow and the western powers backing rebel forces in Syria’s five-year war which has killed more than 300,000 people. Eduardo Munoz/ReutersShow less

BEIRUT // Syrian government forces kept up their blistering assault on rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Sunday after a divided UN Security Council failed to agree on a truce to save the besieged city.

Regime forces and their allies were advancing street by street in the eastern sector which has been out of government hands since 2012.

“Clashes on the ground as well as fierce air strikes went on all night and are continuing Sunday, especially in the Sheikh Said district” of eastern Aleppo, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The monitor said regime forces took control of the Jandul crossroads in the north-east of Aleppo.

The latest advances aim to clear the way for “a crucial and decisive land offensive”, said Syria’s Al-Watan newspaper which is close to the government.

Syria’s official Sana news agency said Sunday that rebel shelling killed a baby and wounded two people in the Hamdaniyeh neighbourhood.

At the United Nations on Saturday, Russia vetoed a French-drafted resolution demanding an immediate end to all military flights over Aleppo and to air strikes on the rebel-held east that has 250,000 inhabitants.

Shortly after Russia’s veto, the Security Council rejected a rival draft presented by Moscow that called for a ceasefire but did not mention a halt in air strikes.

The failure of the two resolutions deepened divisions at the UN Security Council between Moscow and the western powers backing rebel forces in Syria’s five-year war which has killed more than 300,000 people.

“What is at stake today is first and foremost the fate of Aleppo and its people,” France’s foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told the council, urging it to take “immediate action in order to save” the city.

It was the fifth time that Russia used its veto to block UN action on the war in Syria.

Britain’s ambassador to the United Nations, Matthew Rycroft, described Saturday’s failure in New York as “a bad day for Russia, but an even worse day for the people of Aleppo”.

Following the meeting, his Russian counterpart Vitaly Churkin insisted that diplomatic efforts on Syria were not dead.

The Syrian army launched its assault on the besieged sector of Aleppo more than two weeks ago with the backing of Russian air strikes.

Russia says its air strikes target extremist militias such as ISIL but critics say it is more occupied with keeping Syrian president Bashar Al Assad in power than killing extremists.

An analysis published Sunday by the US-based IHS Conflict Monitor said that in the first quarter of 2016, just 26 per cent of Russian strikes in Syria targeted ISIL.

That dipped to 22 per cent in the second quarter, and 17 per cent in the third quarter, the report said.

Air strikes and artillery fire by the regime and its Russian ally killed 290 people, mostly civilians and including 57 children, since the September 22 launch of operations in Aleppo, the Observatory said.

The Britain-based monitor, which compiles its information from sources on the ground, said 50 civilians, including nine children, have also died in rebel bombardment of regime-controlled western districts.

* Agence France-Presse and Associated Press