WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday called on Russia and Syria to cease flying over Aleppo, just days after a convoy carrying human-aid supplies to civilians in the besieged city was attacked by warplanes.

“I believe we must move forward and try to immediately ground all aircraft flying in those key areas in order to de-escalate the situation and give a chance for humanitarian assistance to flow unimpeded,” Kerry said Wednesday at the U.N. Security Council. “If that happens there’s a chance of giving credibility back to this (cease-fire) process.”

The American and Russian brokered cease-fire that went into effect nine days ago appears all but dead, following the Monday night attack on the humanitarian convoy just southwest of Aleppo that killed at least 20 people.

U.S. officials have blamed Russia or Syria for the attack, while the Russians have denied either party was involved. On Wednesday, Russia claimed a U.S. military drone was in the area during the two-hour attack, implying the American military was responsible for the attack.

It was at least the fourth differing account the Russians have provided of the incident, Kerry said as he asked other Security Council members to use common sense and realize “only two countries have airplanes that fly in that particular area – Russia and Syria.”

A senior Pentagon official on Wednesday denied any coalition aircraft were anywhere near the site of the attack. He added the coalition does not fly near Aleppo because there are no Islamic State group targets in the area.

“We did not have any aircraft flying in that area at that time,” said the defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

But the Pentagon would welcome the grounding of Syrian and Russian aircraft over Aleppo, the official said. It would be a first step toward shifting the direction of the cease-fire, which originally called for the U.S. and Russian militaries to begin working together to target the Islamic State group and the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front in Syria.

The Americans had taken the necessary steps to begin preparing the proposed joint command center with the Russians, Air Force Col. John Thomas, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said Tuesday. A location for the operations center had been chosen and face-to-face meetings were set to begin soon. But after the convoy attack, he said, the United States was no longer “anticipating any great progress anytime soon.”

It leaves the U.S. military sitting and waiting on word from the State Department and the United Nations that the cease-fire has either officially been terminated or that the Syrian and Russian militaries have taken the appropriate steps to move forward with the deal initially struck.

That original deal included the grounding of all Syrian warplanes in areas controlled by opposition groups. It did not initially call for Russian planes to cease flying in any specific areas, but after the aid convoy attack, Kerry said there are few options remaining for them to prove they are committed to ending the violence in the country and allowing civilians to get much-needed humanitarian assistance.

The top American diplomat said though the original cease-fire plan was not perfect, he remained committed to seeing it through. But that is only possible if the Russians and Syrians do their parts, Kerry said.

“It will take significant and immediate steps now to try to get things back on track,” he said. “… 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. Our shared task here (with Russia) is to find the way to use the tools of diplomacy to make that happen.”</s>US secretary of state John Kerry demanded on Tuesday 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.

Listening to Lavrov made him feel like he was living in a “parallel universe”, Kerry said.

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”.

“To restore credibility to the process, we must move forward to try to immediately ground all aircraft flying in those key areas in order to de-escalate the situation and give a chance for humanitarian assistance to flow unimpeded,” he said.

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.

The ceasefire which took effect last week is probably the last hope for a settlement on Syria before the administration of President Barack Obama leaves office, and has been Kerry’s main focus for months. But it has so far followed the path of all previous peace efforts: abandoned by the warring parties even as diplomats far away debate it.

Kerry said it was a moment of truth for the opposition, which he said must do more to distance itself from the Nusra Front, long al Qaeda’s Syrian wing, which changed its name and disavowed al Qaeda two months ago.

Nusra is still characterised by both the West and Moscow as a terrorist group excluded from the ceasefire. Other rebels say Moscow and Damascus use this to justify broader attacks.

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.

Syrian state media said the army had recaptured a fertiliser factory in the Ramousah area to the southwest of the city. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring body, confirmed the advance and said government forces had pressed forward near an apartment complex nearby.

A rebel fighter in the Aleppo area said warplanes had been bombing all night in preparation for an attack. But “the regime’s attempts to advance failed,” said the rebel, speaking to Reuters from the Aleppo area via the internet.

A Syrian military source said insurgent groups were mobilising to the south and west of Aleppo and in the northern Hama area. “We will certainly target all these gatherings and mobilisations they are conducting.”

The army reported carrying out air strikes 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.

Syrian government forces also launched a major advance in Hama province in the West of the country.

“It is a very intense attack, for which Russian jets paved the way, but it was repelled by the brothers, praise God,” Abu al-Baraa al-Hamawi, a rebel commander fighting as part of the Islamist Jaish al-Fatah alliance, told Reuters.

He said rebels had destroyed four tanks and inflicted heavy losses. Syrian state TV said government forces had killed a number of insurgents and destroyed their vehicles.

Rebel sources also reported an attempt by pro-government forces to advance in the Handarat area to the north of Aleppo, saying this too had been repelled. Pro-government media made no mention of that attack.

The Observatory reported that a Syrian jet had crashed near Damascus, saying the cause of the crash and fate of the pilot were unknown. Islamic State said it had been shot down.

The truce brokered by the United States and Russia took effect on September 12th as part of a deal meant to facilitate aid access to besieged areas.

Washington and Moscow, which back opposing sides in the war between Assad’s government and insurgents, agreed to jointly target jihadists that are their common enemy.

But such unprecedented co-operation, at a time when trust between the Cold War-era foes is at its lowest for decades, was always a risky gamble. Kerry hammered out the deal over months of shuttle diplomacy despite scepticism among other senior US administration figures.

Tensions between the United States and Russia escalated over a September 17th attack by the US-led coalition against Islamic State that killed dozens of Syrian soldiers in the eastern Deir al-Zor province. Washington said that strike was carried out by mistake with the intent of hitting Islamic State.

Monday’s attack on the aid convoy, which the Syrian Red Crescent says killed the head of its local office and around 20 other people, brought furious international condemnation.

The United Nations suspended aid shipments. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon used his farewell speech to the General Assembly in New York to denounce the “cowards” behind it.

“Just when you think it cannot get any worse, the bar of depravity sinks lower,” Ban said. The United Nations initially described the attack as an air strike but later rowed back, saying it could not be sure what had happened.

But Washington says it is all but certain the trucks were hit by the air, which could only have been carried out by Russian or Syrian planes, and it suspects Moscow.

Two US officials told Reuters on Tuesday that two Russian Sukhoi SU-24 warplanes were in the skies above the aid convoy at the time it was struck.

Moscow says the convoy was not hit from the air and has implied rebels were to blame, saying only rescue workers affiliated to the opposition knew what had happened. – Reuters</s>(CNN) Secretary of State John Kerry launched a blistering attack on Russia Wednesday for its actions in Syria, pointing to the bombing of a UN aid convoy that left more than 20 dead and its inability to stop continued Syrian air attacks.

Kerry spoke immediately after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a United Nations Security Council meeting in New York about the five-year Syrian war.

"I listened to my colleague from Russia and I sort of felt like we're in a parallel universe here," Kerry said of their differing accounts of the conflict. He called for all planes in key areas of Syria to be immediately grounded and for countries to stop supporting those who sabotage ceasefire efforts.

Kerry also questioned how the US-supported opposition can engage in political talks to resolve the conflict when the Syrian regime, backed by Russia, doesn't halt its attacks. Russia was tasked with restraining Syria during this latest attempt at a ceasefire, undertaken last week.

"How can people go sit at a table with a regime that bombs hospitals and drops chlorine gas again and again and again and again and again and acts with impunity," Kerry asked. "You're supposed to sit there and have happy talk in Geneva while the regime drops bombs?"

The diplomatic clashing of swords highlights just how hard it has been to take even the first steps toward calming the Syrian conflict enough to begin political talks. The ongoing civil war has given terror groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda fertile recruiting ground, has sucked in regional powers seeking influence over the outcome and has sent ripples through Europe and its allies.

As diplomats sparred at the Security Council, Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu said that Moscow was sending an aircraft cruiser to the Mediterranean to strengthen its capabilities there.

The Russians have denied that they were behind the attack on the UN convoy and instead have offered a series of explanations that Kerry detailed at the Security Council meeting..

Russia initially said that the strike was a necessary response to an alleged offensive by an al-Qaeda-linked terror group, Kerry said. Then Russia claimed they were bombing elsewhere, then that the aid convoy had been followed by militants with mortars, and then that the trucks caught fire.

"The trucks and the food and the medicine just spontaneously combusted," Kerry said. "Anybody here believe that?" he asked. The bombing attacks on hospitals and children are "flagrant violations of international law," he added.

And attacks on civilians and humanitarian workers continue, Kerry noted. He cited separate air strikes on Monday that killed four aid workers near Aleppo.

"There are only two countries that have planes that are flying during the night or flying in that particular area at all," Kerry said. "They are Russia and Syria."

At the Security Council Wednesday, Lavrov said Russia always put as a top priority the resumption of the inter-Syrian political dialogue without any preconditions. And he called for a "thorough and impartial" investigation into Monday's bombing, which left the convoy of trucks in a twisted wreck of smoking metal.

And he urged his counterparts at the meeting to "refrain from emotional comments."

US officials have fingered Russia as the perpetrator of the attack based on intelligence and reports from the ground. Kerry cited eyewitnesses who said that "all of a sudden, the place became hell and the fighter jets were in the sky."

The White House said publicly Tuesday night that it held Russians responsible, regardless of whether it or the Syrian government had launched the strikes, since they have responsibility for the airspace.

"We have not seen good faith. This was an outrageous action," said Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes.

Syrian Ambassador to the UN Bashaar Jaafari hit back, saying it was "laughable" for Kerry to cite eyewitness accounts when, he claimed, "thousands of people" in the area hadn't seen any jets.

He also took the US to task for an airstrike on Satruday that killed 62 Syrian soldiers, calling it a "deliberate and unacceptable aggression." The US has said it was an accident.

Kerry's scathing 28-minute speech to the Security Council also pressed the need to return to a 2012 plan to create a political transition in Syria. He pointed to repeated Syrian attacks on civilians, detailed shifting Russian explanations about the aid convoy attack and ridiculed Moscow's argument that political talks shouldn't be burdened with preconditions.

The US has said that Russia bears responsibility for the attack on the convoy because they were the only two countries flying planes over the area at that time and Russia had pledged to restrain Syria.

"The primary question is no longer what do we know," Kerry said. "The primary question is, collectively, what are we going to do about it? In other words, this is a moment of truth."

Lavrov needled the US over opposition groups during his address. Washington and Moscow have clashed over Russian targeting of moderate Syrian opposition groups backed by the US. The Russians have claimed that some of these groups are not particularly moderate and have accused opposition groups of violating the ceasefire.

On Wednesday, Lavrov called for all members of the International Syrian Support Group to ensure that the opposition groups over which they have influence will comply with the cessation of hostilities.

Otherwise, he added, "We can't preserve Syria as a single, united state."

And he alluded to "geopolitical engineering," a reference to Russian concerns about US attempts at "regime change." Syria's Jaafari echoed the argument, telling the meeting that the International Syrian Support Group was "formed outside international legitimacy" and was "reminiscent of other destructive coalitions that only brought disasters to countries like Iraq and Libya and Yemen."

The only success the US has managed to achieve, Jaafari said, is to level "false accusations" about the "suffering of Syrians to demonize the Syrian government and its allies."

Kerry had left the meeting before the Syrian ambassador spoke, but when Jaafari had finished speaking, Ambassador Michele Sison, the US deputy representative to the UN, asked to address the council.

"My colleagues are entitled to their own opinions but not to their own facts," Sison said. "Let's just keep in mind just who is prolonging the suffering of the people of Syria." Jaafari's remarks had been "so full of untruths that I feel no need to say anything further," she said.

For his part, earlier in the meeting, Kerry mocked Lavrov's argument that there should be no preconditions before political negotiations start. Citing four international-level agreements calling for a cessation of hostilities that could then lead to peace talks, Kerry said, "that's not a precondition. That's an international agreement, four times arrived at."

"Four times, it's been shredded by independent actors," Kerry said, "by spoilers who don't want a cease-fire."

Half of Syria's population has been uprooted, many of them fleeing to Europe, and well over 300,000 men, women and children have been killed, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told the meeting.

"Those who believe the crisis in Syria cannot become even worse are dead wrong," Kerry said, "as are those who believe there's a military solution."</s>An air strike in northern Syria killed five medics responding to an earlier bombing raid, a relief group said, a day after an air strike on a humanitarian convoy prompted the UN to suspend desperately needed aid deliveries.

The team had just arrived at the scene of the first air strike in the rebel-held town of Khan Touman when planes circled around and struck the area again, D Oubaida Al Moufti, vice-president of the International Union of Medical Care and Relief Organisations, said.

Syrian government forces have been accused of carrying out “double tap” attacks throughout the five-and-a-half-year war, placing paramedics and rescue workers in peril.

The organisation, known by its French initials UOSSM, had initially said that the Tuesday night strike levelled a medical triage point it operates in rebel-held territory outside the contested city of Aleppo.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 13 people were killed in the attack, including nine militants, some of them belonging to the Fatah al-Sham Front, an al Qaida-linked group previously known as the Nusra Front.

Three nurses and two ambulance drivers died of their injuries, UOSSM said.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the strike. Aircraft from Syria, Russia and the US-led coalition are targeting the Fatah al-Sham Front, which along with the Islamic State group was excluded from a week-long ceasefire.

An air strike on a Syrian Arab Red Crescent aid convoy on Monday night prompted international condemnation over attacks targeting humanitarian facilities and workers.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon described the convoy strike as a “sickening, savage and apparently deliberate attack”. The convoy was carrying UN aid.

The incident fuelled tensions between the two architects of Syria’s ceasefire, Russia and the United States.

The US said it believed Russian or Syrian government jets were behind the attack that killed 20 civilians, and that either way it held Russia responsible because under the truce deal Moscow was charged with preventing air strikes on humanitarian deliveries. Syria’s rebels do not have aircraft.

US Secretary of State John Kerry called for aircraft over humanitarian routes in northern Syria grounded in order to facilitate aid deliveries.</s>Initial estimates indicate that about 18 of the 31 trucks in the convoy were hit, as well as the Red Crescent warehouse in the area.

Syria’s ceasefire has faltered further after an aid convoy was hit by airstrikes, with activists saying at least 12 people were killed in the attack, mostly truck drivers and Red Crescent workers.

The strikes late on Monday came just hours after the Syrian military declared the week-long U.S.-Russian brokered ceasefire had failed. The United States said it was prepared to extend the truce deal and Russia after blaming rebels for the violations suggested it could still be salvaged.

It was not clear who was behind the attack, which sent a red fireball into the sky in the dead of night over a rural area in Aleppo province. Both Syrian and Russian aircraft operate over Syria, as well as the U.S.-led coalition that is targeting the Islamic State group.

U.N. officials said the U.N. and Red Crescent convoy was delivering assistance for 78,000 people in the town of Uram al-Kubra, west of the northern city of Aleppo.

Initial estimates indicate that about 18 of the 31 trucks in the convoy were hit, as well as the Red Crescent warehouse in the area.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group that tracks the civil war, said at least 12 were killed in the attack, mostly truck drivers and Red Crescent workers. The Syrian Civil Defense, the volunteer first responder group also known as the White Helmets, confirmed that casualty figure.

Jan Egeland, humanitarian aid coordinator in the office of the U.N. envoy for Syria, told The Associated Press in a text message that the convoy was “bombarded.”

Egeland added, “It is outrageous that it was hit while offloading at warehouses.”

The U. N. Humanitarian Chief Stephen O’Brien called on “all parties to the conflict, once again, to take all necessary measures to protect humanitarian actors, civilians, and civilian infrastructure as required by international humanitarian law.”

The convoy, part of a routine inter agency dispatch operated by the Syrian Red Crescent, was hit in rural western Aleppo province. The White Helmets first responder group posted images of a number of vehicles on fire and a video of the attack showed huge balls of fire in a pitch black area, as ambulances arrive on the scene.

A Red Crescent official in Syria confirmed the attack, but said no further information was available.

Elsewhere on Monday, at least 20 civilians, including a 1-year-old girl, were killed in fresh airstrikes on rebel-held Aleppo city and the surrounding areas, according to the Observatory. And Russia said government positions in southwestern Aleppo came under attack from militant groups, including a massive barrage of rockets.

With the week-old ceasefire under threat, both Moscow and Washington indicated a desire to try and salvage the agreement that had brought a brief respite to at least some parts the war-torn country.

In the wake of the Syrian military declaration, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged that the first stage of the truce which called for a week of calm and the delivery of humanitarian aid to several besieged communities had never really come to fruition. Earlier in the day, Mr. Kerry told reporters on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly that the truce was “holding but fragile.”

The State Department said that it was ready to work with Russia to strengthen the terms of the agreement and expand deliveries of humanitarian aid. Spokesman John Kirby said Russia, which is responsible for ensuring Syria’s compliance, should clarify the Syrian position.

A Russian Foreign Ministry statement late Monday night appeared to signal that the deal could still be salvaged, saying that the failure by the rebels in Syria to respect the ceasefire threatens to thwart the agreement.

The ceasefire came into effect on Sept. 12. Under terms of the agreement, the successful completion of seven days of calm and humanitarian aid deliveries would be followed by an ambitious second-stage plan to set up a joint U.S.-Russian coordination centre to plan military strikes against the Islamic State group and a powerful al-Qaeda-linked militant faction.

But from the start, the truce has been beset by difficulties and mutual accusations of violations.

Aid deliveries to the besieged eastern districts of Aleppo have not reached their destination. The U.N. accused the government of obstructing the delivery while Russian officials said rebels opened fire at the delivery roads.

Rebel forces and activists say government planes have bombed areas that are under the truce agreement, including rebel-held parts of Aleppo. At least 22 civilians were killed in government bombings over the last week, according to the Observatory, an opposition activist group. It said four civilians were killed in government-held areas. There were no independent reports of deaths of civilians on the government-side since the ceasefire came into effect.</s>WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday called on Russia and Syria to cease flying over Aleppo, just days after a convoy carrying human-aid supplies to civilians in the besieged city was attacked by warplanes.

“I believe we must move forward and try to immediately ground all aircraft flying in those key areas in order to de-escalate the situation and give a chance for humanitarian assistance to flow unimpeded,” Kerry said Wednesday at the U.N. Security Council. “If that happens there’s a chance of giving credibility back to this (cease-fire) process.”

The American and Russian brokered cease-fire that went into effect nine days ago appears all but dead, following the Monday night attack on the humanitarian convoy just southwest of Aleppo that killed at least 20 people.

U.S. officials have blamed Russia or Syria for the attack, while the Russians have denied either party was involved. On Wednesday, Russia claimed a U.S. military drone was in the area during the two-hour attack, implying the American military was responsible for the attack.

It was at least the fourth differing account the Russians have provided of the incident, Kerry said as he asked other Security Council members to use common sense and realize “only two countries have airplanes that fly in that particular area – Russia and Syria.”

A senior Pentagon official on Wednesday denied any coalition aircraft were anywhere near the site of the attack. He added the coalition does not fly near Aleppo because there are no Islamic State group targets in the area.

“We did not have any aircraft flying in that area at that time,” said the defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

But the Pentagon would welcome the grounding of Syrian and Russian aircraft over Aleppo, the official said. It would be a first step toward shifting the direction of the cease-fire, which originally called for the U.S. and Russian militaries to begin working together to target the Islamic State group and the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front in Syria.

The Americans had taken the necessary steps to begin preparing the proposed joint command center with the Russians, Air Force Col. John Thomas, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said Tuesday. A location for the operations center had been chosen and face-to-face meetings were set to begin soon. But after the convoy attack, he said, the United States was no longer “anticipating any great progress anytime soon.”

It leaves the U.S. military sitting and waiting on word from the State Department and the United Nations that the cease-fire has either officially been terminated or that the Syrian and Russian militaries have taken the appropriate steps to move forward with the deal initially struck.

That original deal included the grounding of all Syrian warplanes in areas controlled by opposition groups. It did not initially call for Russian planes to cease flying in any specific areas, but after the aid convoy attack, Kerry said there are few options remaining for them to prove they are committed to ending the violence in the country and allowing civilians to get much-needed humanitarian assistance.

The top American diplomat said though the original cease-fire plan was not perfect, he remained committed to seeing it through. But that is only possible if the Russians and Syrians do their parts, Kerry said.

“It will take significant and immediate steps now to try to get things back on track,” he said. “… 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. Our shared task here (with Russia) is to find the way to use the tools of diplomacy to make that happen.”</s>The US believes Russian warplanes were responsible for an attack on a UN aid convoy operated by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, officials have told CNN.

At least a dozen aid workers are thought to have been killed by the air strike, which occurred near Aleppo on Monday, hours after the breakdown of a ceasefire brokered by the US and Russia.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has described the incident as "sickening, savage and apparently deliberate." Mr Ban said the UN had suspended its aid convoys following the attack. Speaking to world leaders at the UN General Assembly in New York, he said: "The humanitarians delivering life-saving aid were heroes. Those who bombed them were cowards.“

The bombing was initially blamed on either Russia or Syria's Assad regime. Both have denied that their planes carried out the strike, but the US has reportedly reached the "preliminary conclusion" that two Russian Su-24 jets were responsible, based on the timing and location of the attack. The strike hit at least 18 of the 31 trucks in the convoy, which was bringing food relief from UN stores to the town of Urm al-Kubra, west of Aleppo, in an area controlled by rebel groups.

The attack came amid a resumption of hostilities following the fragile, week-long ceasefire, which it was hoped would mark the beginning of the end of Syria's bloody five-year civil war.

The Russian Defence Ministry said its intelligence services had studied drone footage from the incident, and did not see evidence of munitions hitting the convoy. The damage inficted on the trucks was "the direct result of the cargo catching fire, which mysteriously began at the same time as a large scale rebel attack on Aleppo,” Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.

A section of the Russian footage was also released, which Mr Konashenkov said "clearly shows" rebels driving a pick-up truck and a mortar, using the convoy as cover.

The US had already made it clear on Monday night that it held Moscow responsible for the deaths, regardless of whose planes carried out the strike.

“We don’t know at this point whether it was the Russians or the regime. In either case, the Russians have the responsibility certainly to... refrain from taking such action themselves, but they also have the responsibility to keep the regime from doing it,” a US State Department statement said.

US Secretary of State John Kerry – who personally negotiated the truce during months of intensive diplomacy with Russia – spoke about the crumbling ceasefire after emerging alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov from a meeting of foreign ministers of 20 countries, gathered to discuss Syria in New York on Tuesday.

Mr Kerry insisted the ceasefire was "not dead" despite the attack, in which a Red Crescent warehouse and health clinic were also seriously damaged, and aid supplies for thousands of people were destroyed.</s>A Syrian man carries a baby after removing him from the rubble of a destroyed building following a reported air strike in the Qatarji neighbourhood of the northern city of Aleppo on Wednesday (AFP photo)

UNITED NATIONS/BEIRUT — 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”.

Listening to Lavrov made him feel like he was living in a "parallel universe", Kerry said.

On the ground, rebels battled the forces of the government of President Bashar 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”.

“To restore credibility to the process, we must move forward to try to immediately ground all aircraft flying in those key areas in order to de-escalate the situation, and give a chance for humanitarian assistance to flow unimpeded,” he said.

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.

The ceasefire which took effect last week is probably the last hope for a settlement on Syria before the administration of President Barack Obama leaves office, and has been Kerry’s main focus for months. But it has so far followed the path of all previous peace efforts: abandoned by the warring parties even as diplomats far away debate it.

Kerry said it was a moment of truth for the opposition, which he said must do more to distance itself from Al Nusra Front, long Al Qaeda’s Syrian wing, which changed its name and disavowed Al Qaeda two months ago.

Al Nusra is still characterised by both the West and Moscow as a terrorist group excluded from the ceasefire. Other rebels say Moscow and Damascus use this to justify broader attacks.

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.

Syrian state media said the army had recaptured a fertiliser factory in the Ramousah area to the southwest of the city. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring body, confirmed the advance and said government forces had pressed forward near an apartment complex nearby.

A rebel fighter in the Aleppo area said warplanes had been bombing all night in preparation for an attack. But “the regime’s attempts to advance failed”, said the rebel, speaking to Reuters from the Aleppo area via the internet.

A Syrian military source said insurgent groups were mobilising to the south and west of Aleppo and in the northern Hama area. “We will certainly target all these gatherings and mobilisations they are conducting.”

The army reported carrying out air strikes 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 Organisations (UOSSM), it said. UOSSM confirmed in a statement that at least four of its staff had been killed.

Syrian government forces also launched a major advance in Hama province in the West of the country.

“It is a very intense attack, for which Russian jets paved the way, but it was repelled by the brothers, praise God,” Abu Al Baraa Al Hamawi, a rebel commander fighting as part of the Islamist Jaish Al Fatah alliance, told Reuters.

He said rebels had destroyed four tanks and inflicted heavy losses. Syrian state TV said government forces had killed a number of insurgents and destroyed their vehicles.

Rebel sources also reported an attempt by pro-government forces to advance in the Handarat area to the north of Aleppo, saying this too had been repelled. Pro-government media made no mention of that attack.

The observatory reported that a Syrian jet had crashed near Damascus, saying the cause of the crash and fate of the pilot were unknown. Daesh said it had been shot down.

The truce brokered by the United States and Russia took effect on September 12 as part of a deal meant to facilitate aid access to besieged areas.

Washington and Moscow, which back opposing sides in the war between Assad’s government and insurgents, agreed to jointly target militants that are their common enemy.

But such unprecedented cooperation, at a time when trust between the Cold War-era foes is at its lowest for decades, was always a risky gamble. Kerry hammered out the deal over months of shuttle diplomacy despite scepticism among other senior US administration figures.

Tensions between the United States and Russia escalated over a September 17 attack by the US-led coalition against Daesh that killed dozens of Syrian soldiers in the eastern Deir Ezzor province. Washington said that strike was carried out by mistake with the intent of hitting Daesh.

Monday’s attack on the aid convoy, which the Syrian Red Crescent says killed the head of its local office and around 20 other people, brought furious international condemnation.

The United Nations suspended aid shipments. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon used his farewell speech to the General Assembly in New York to denounce the “cowards” behind it.

“Just when you think it cannot get any worse, the bar of depravity sinks lower,” Ban said. The United Nations initially described the attack as an air strike but later rowed back, saying it could not be sure what had happened.

But Washington says it is all but certain the trucks were hit by the air, which could only have been carried out by Russian or Syrian planes, and it suspects Moscow.

Two US officials told Reuters on Tuesday that two Russian Sukhoi SU-24 warplanes were in the skies above the aid convoy at the time it was struck.

Moscow says the convoy was not hit from the air and has implied rebels were to blame, saying only rescue workers affiliated to the opposition knew what had happened.</s>UNITED NATIONS/BEIRUT, Sept 21 (Reuters) - U.S. 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 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the U.N. Security Council in New York, during a tense 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.

Speaking before Kerry, Lavrov told the 15-member Security Council: "One needs to refrain from emotional instincts, from rushing to the microphone immediately to comment on something; a probe should be conducted (into the aid convoy attack)."

Listening to Lavrov made him feel like he was living in a "parallel universe", Kerry said.

"To restore credibility to the process we must move forward to try to immediately ground all aircraft flying in those key areas in order to de-escalate the situation and give a chance for humanitarian assistance to flow unimpeded," Kerry said.

The key areas are places where humanitarian aid needs to be delivered and where Syrian government forces have been accused of targeting civilians.

The aim of the ceasefire deal between the United States and Russia, which took effect on Sept. 12, is to facilitate aid access to besieged areas and allow the pair to jointly target Islamic State jihadists.

More than 300,000 people have been killed and half of Syria's 22 million people have been uprooted since a crackdown by President Bashar al-Assad on pro-democracy protesters in 2011 sparked a civil war. Islamic State militants used the chaos to seize territory.

The United Nations suspended aid deliveries after the convoy attack two days ago, which the Syrian Red Crescent says killed some 20 people, but the world body said on Wednesday it was gearing up to resume deliveries.

On the ground, rebels battled the forces of the Assad government 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.

U.S. officials believe Russian aircraft are responsible for the attack near Aleppo, but Moscow has denied involvement and the Russian Defence Ministry said on Wednesday a U.S. Predator drone was in the area when the convoy was attacked.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault distributed a document on Wednesday to the U.N. Security Council outlining a new mechanism for monitoring the truce that it wants major powers to discuss later this week.

The ceasefire is probably the last hope for a settlement on Syria before President Barack Obama leaves office in January, and has been Kerry's main focus for months. But it has become a repeat of previous peace efforts: abandoned by the warring parties even as diplomats far away debate it.

"I call on every country to cease providing support of any kind to any party that is trying to sabotage this plan," Kerry said.

The Syrian army is backed by Moscow, Iran, Shi'ite militias and fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah, while the rebels are supported by countries including the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani dismissed Kerry's demand on Wednesday, telling NBC News that such a move would only benefit Islamic State and jihadists Nusra Front.

Kerry said it was a moment of truth for the opposition, which he said must do more to distance itself from the Nusra Front, long al Qaeda's Syrian wing but which changed its name and disavowed al Qaeda two months ago.

Nusra is still characterised by both the West and Moscow as a terrorist group excluded from the ceasefire. Other rebels say Moscow and Damascus use this to justify broader attacks.

Tensions between the United States and Russia escalated over a Sept. 17 attack by the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State that killed dozens of Syrian soldiers in the eastern Deir al-Zor province. Washington said that strike was carried out by mistake with the intent of hitting Islamic State militants.

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.

Syrian state media said the army had recaptured a fertiliser factory in the Ramousah area to the southwest of the city. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring body, confirmed the advance and said government forces had pressed forward near an apartment complex nearby.

A rebel fighter in the Aleppo area said warplanes had been bombing all night in preparation for an attack. But "the regime's attempts to advance failed," said the rebel, speaking to Reuters from the Aleppo area via the internet.

A Syrian military source said insurgent groups were mobilising to the south and west of Aleppo and in the northern Hama area. "We will certainly target all these gatherings and mobilisations they are conducting."

The army reported carrying out air strikes 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.

Syrian government forces also launched a major advance in Hama province in the West of the country. (Additional reporting by John Davison in Beirut and Yara Bayoumy, John Irish and Denis Dyomokin at the United Nations; writing by Peter Graff and Tom Perry, editing by Peter Millership and Howard Goller)</s>An air strike in northern Syria killed five medics responding to an earlier bombing raid, a relief group said, a day after an air strike on a humanitarian convoy prompted the UN to suspend desperately needed aid deliveries.

The team had just arrived at the scene of the first air strike in the rebel-held town of Khan Touman when planes circled around and struck the area again, D Oubaida Al Moufti, vice-president of the International Union of Medical Care and Relief Organisations, said.

Syrian government forces have been accused of carrying out “double tap” attacks throughout the five-and-a-half-year war, placing paramedics and rescue workers in peril.

The organisation, known by its French initials UOSSM, had initially said that the Tuesday night strike levelled a medical triage point it operates in rebel-held territory outside the contested city of Aleppo.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 13 people were killed in the attack, including nine militants, some of them belonging to the Fatah al-Sham Front, an al Qaida-linked group previously known as the Nusra Front.

Three nurses and two ambulance drivers died of their injuries, UOSSM said.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the strike. Aircraft from Syria, Russia and the US-led coalition are targeting the Fatah al-Sham Front, which along with the Islamic State group was excluded from a week-long ceasefire.

An air strike on a Syrian Arab Red Crescent aid convoy on Monday night prompted international condemnation over attacks targeting humanitarian facilities and workers.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon described the convoy strike as a “sickening, savage and apparently deliberate attack”. The convoy was carrying UN aid.

The incident fuelled tensions between the two architects of Syria’s ceasefire, Russia and the United States.

The US said it believed Russian or Syrian government jets were behind the attack that killed 20 civilians, and that either way it held Russia responsible because under the truce deal Moscow was charged with preventing air strikes on humanitarian deliveries. Syria’s rebels do not have aircraft.

US Secretary of State John Kerry called for aircraft over humanitarian routes in northern Syria grounded in order to facilitate aid deliveries.
The United States Secretary of State John Kerry calls for a no-fly zone over northern Syria, in response to the recent airstrikes on an aid convoy and medical facility in the Aleppo Governorate.