The Latest: Kerry wants aircraft grounded to allow Syria aid
BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on Syria’s conflict (all times local):
6:10 p.m.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry wants all aircraft over key humanitarian routes in northern Syria grounded in order to facilitate desperately need aid deliveries.
Kerry told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that such a step could restore credibility to efforts to end the five-year civil war and “give a chance for humanitarian assistance to flow unimpeded.”
A U.S.-Russian cease-fire that went into effect nine days ago has all but collapsed. The U.N. suspended aid deliveries after a strike on a humanitarian convoy this week.
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5 p.m.
The Russian defense minister says the navy will send its sole aircraft carrier to the eastern Mediterranean.
Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday that the Admiral Kuznetsov will join other Russian ships near Syria’s shores. He didn’t specify when it will be deployed, but Russian media reports have said the mission is planned for the fall.
The Soviet-built Admiral Kuznetsov, the only aircraft carrier in the Russian navy, has recently been re-equipped with new fighter jets.
Russia has waged a yearlong air campaign in Syria that has shored up President Bashar Assad and allowed his troops to seize some key ground. Last week, Moscow and Washington brokered a cease-fire in Syria, which is now teetering on the brink amid renewed fighting and an attack on a humanitarian convoy.
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4:50 p.m.
The U.N. Security Council has taken up Syria’s civil war as a temporary truce unravels and international tensions rise.
A day after the U.S., Russia and other powers sought to keep the week-old cease-fire alive, the same actors are debating the conflict in a public setting.
Moscow backs Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government, while Washington supports many of the rebel factions fighting to topple him. Both say they’re committed to fighting the Islamic State group and al-Qaida-linked militants.
A relief organization reported five medical staff killed in an airstrike in northern Syria on Tuesday night, the latest in a series of attacks on humanitarian workers.
A strike on a Syrian Red Crescent aid convoy earlier this week prompted international condemnation. The U.N. called it a deliberate attack. U.S. officials say they believe Russia carried out the strike. Russia denies responsibility.
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3:20 p.m.
A medical relief organization says an airstrike in northern Syria hit a mobile emergency unit, and not a medical facility.
Dr. Oubaida Al Moufti, vice president of the International Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations, says five staff members were killed when its ambulances were hit. He told The Associated Press in Paris on Wednesday that the team was bombed while responding to an earlier airstrike targeting militants from the al-Qaida-linked Fatah al-Sham Front.
The Paris-based aid group initially said the attack Tuesday night leveled a medical triage facility it operates in rebel-held territory outside the contested city of Aleppo.
The group, known by its French initials UOSSM, said three nurses and two ambulance drivers were killed.
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2:50 p.m.
Syrian state TV says a military warplane has crashed and the pilot has been rescued after carrying out a combat mission against Islamic State group militants northwest of the capital, Damascus.
State TV, quoting an unnamed military official, says the pilot has been rescued but doesn’t say what caused the plane to crash in the Qalamoun mountains, an area that straddles the border with Lebanon.
The IS-affiliated news agency Aamaq said earlier the group’s militants downed the plane in eastern Qalamoun after the aircraft carried out four raids against it. The agency said the plane crashed in an area controlled by either the government or rebel factions.
The militant group downed a government aircraft Sunday in the eastern Deir el-Zour province.
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2:20 p.m.
A Syrian monitoring group says a warplane has crashed northwest of the capital, Damascus, as Islamic State group militants claim they downed it.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the fate of the pilot remains unclear. It says it was unclear if the warplane was downed Wednesday or had technical problems.
The Observatory says the plane crashed in the eastern Qalamoun mountains, northwest of Damascus.
The IS-affiliated news agency Aamaq says the group’s militants downed the plane in eastern Qalamoun, after the aircraft carried out four raids against it. The agency says the plane crashed in an area controlled by either the government or rebel factions, indicating it would not have pictures of the aircraft.
IS says it downed a Syrian government warplane. There was no immediate comment from the government.
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10:30 a.m.
A medical relief organization says four of its staff have been killed in an attack on a medical facility in Syria.
The International Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations says an airstrike Tuesday night in northern Syria leveled a medical triage point in rebel-held territory outside the contested city of Aleppo.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group puts the toll at 13 dead, among them four nurses and paramedics and nine rebel fighters, some of them belonging to the al-Qaida-linked Fatah al-Sham Front.
It says the triage point was located in the rebel-held town of Khan Touman, south of Aleppo.
There were no reports on who was behind the strike.
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