Syrian air force retaliation strikes kill 19 in Aleppo

Strikes by the Syrian air force yesterday killed 19 people in opposition-held districts of Aleppo following Monday's bombardments by insurgents that killed 19 in government-controlled areas.

The exchanges, which are among the most deadly since the cessation of hostilities began on February 27th, were sparked by al-Qaeda's Jabhat al-Nusra which – along with Islamic State – is considered "terrorist" and excluded from the ceasefire. On Monday, Islamic State, known as Isis, also claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed 15 at a hospital east of Damascus near the Shia shrine of Saida Zeinab, granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad.

The attacks prompted Damascus to call on the UN Security Council to condemn the violence and Syrian government negotiator Bashar al-Jaafari to accuse Turkey and Saudi Arabia of encouraging Nusra and Islamic State to undermine the intra-Syrian talks taking place in Geneva.

He chastised the Riyadh-sponsored opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) for suspending participation due to the breakdown of the ceasefire while member factions involved with Nusra have been shelling Aleppo.

Nevertheless, after this round’s meetings with UN mediator Staffan de Mistura, Mr Jaafari called the discussions “useful and constructive”.

US-backed factions

While Islamic State concentrates in specific locations and stands alone, Nusra is deployed across

Syria

and counts on the support of many of the 33 US-backed factions dubbed “moderates”.

Following air strikes on insurgents in Aleppo and Idlib provinces last week, US secretary of state John Kerry said it had been "harder to separate" Nusra from US allies "than we thought". He also spoke of the "impatience" of Moscow and Damascus "with the terrorists who are behaving like terrorists", He said the US and Russia had agreed to a 24-hour monitoring system, a demand put forward by Moscow at the outset of the truce. This has still to be put in place.

US president Barack Obama has pledged to deploy an additional 250 special forces to bolster the Kurdish-Arab units fighting Islamic State in the north.

Strategic routes

The opposition and its external supporters have been under pressure to respond to the exploitation by the Syrian army and Russian air force of the ceasefire to free troops to retake the iconic city of Palmyra, its ancient ruins and the Christian town of Qaryatain.

The army has also regained control of strategic supply routes south of Aleppo and cut Islamic State connections with Turkey.

During the ceasefire humanitarian agencies have delivered food and medical aid to besieged and hard-to-reach areas, including opposition-held Rastan in Homs province and government-controlled sectors of Deir al-Zor, boosting the number of people receiving assistance to 750,000.

In Geneva, deadlock continues over the future of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. The government argues he must stay on while the HNC and its western and Arab allies insist he stands down.

Qadri Jamil of the Moscow-Cairo opposition group condemned all parties who broke the ceasefire and said they were betraying the Syrian people. He said parties opposed to a political solution had caused “difficulties” and absentees should not be permitted to prevent progress.

He urged Mr de Mistura to name a date for a fourth round and said the opposition should be represented by a “single delegation” comprised of people with different views but “united on a minimum programme”.