In Syria, attack on Kurdish neighborhood in Aleppo kills 14

Tue., April 5, 2016

Bassem Mroue Associated Press

U.S. says Syria blocking food aid

UNITED NATIONS – The United States accused the Syrian government on Tuesday of preventing humanitarian aid deliveries to all besieged and hard-to-reach areas of the country as required in U.N. resolutions, even as a cease-fire that was meant to allow such deliveries continues.

U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power told reporters after a closed-door emergency briefing to the Security Council by the U.N. humanitarian chief that less food aid reached millions of people in besieged and hard-to-reach areas in March than in February, when the cease-fire began.

The U.N.’s humanitarian office said 21 percent of the nearly 500,000 people in besieged areas were reached in March, down from 25 percent in February. But spokeswoman Amanda Pitt said 83,000 of the 4.1 million people in hard-to-reach areas got aid in March, more than the 53,000 in February.

Syria’s government hasn’t approved aid for the besieged areas of Duma, East Harasta and Daraya, which are “mere minutes’ drive away from U.N. warehouses in Damascus,” humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien told the council last week.

He said the U.N. has received reports that severe food shortages are forcing some people in Daraya to eat grass.

BEIRUT – Syrian insurgents shot down a government warplane in the north of the country Tuesday and shelled a predominantly Kurdish neighborhood in the city of Aleppo, killing at least 14 people, opposition monitoring groups and state media said.

State TV said the warplane was shot down with a surface-to-air missile while on a reconnaissance mission over the northern province of Aleppo, adding that the pilot ejected and “work is ongoing to rescue him.”

Opposition activists said the warplane was shot down near the village of al-Ais that was captured Saturday by insurgents spearheaded by members of the Nusra Front – al-Qaida’s branch in Syria.

The downing of the warplane and latest fighting and shelling in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and former commercial center, threaten to undermine a U.S.-Russia-brokered cease-fire that has largely held since Feb. 27.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the pilot was captured by Nusra Front members, who took him to one of their offices in the area. The Local Coordination Committees said the warplane was a Sukhoi 22.

In Moscow, Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said no Russian warplanes flew over Aleppo on Tuesday.

Also Tuesday, the U.N. special envoy for Syria will head to Moscow ahead of the planned resumption of indirect peace talks between the Russia-backed government of Syrian President Bashar Assad and opposition groups next week in Geneva.

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