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> 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> 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> 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> The British ambassador to the United Nations, Matthew Rycroft, accused Russia of abusing its veto power.

"In the end, no resolution of this Security Council can end this war. The only thing that can end this war is a change of policy in Moscow," he said after the veto.

A separate counterresolution by Russia that did not call for a halt in airstrikes on Aleppo failed to get the necessary votes to pass.

"It was one weird day" at the Council, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said after the failed vote and his veto. He called it a "strange spectacle."

The Russian veto had been expected as Russia and the United States have been fighting over Russia's support of the Assad regime. Friday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said airstrikes by Syrian troops with Russian support should be investigated as war crimes as they hit hospitals and civilians. A Syrian family leaves the area following a reported airstrike on Friday, September 23, in rebel-held east Aleppo. Following the airstrike, recovery teams from Syria Civil Defense, known as the White Helmets, began working to free the trapped and recover the dead, including small children. This photo was released by the volunteer group Syria Civil Defense of the bodies of a man, with his knee pulled up near his face, and a child covered in dust after they were killed in the airstrike. The volunteers work to recover the bodies the man and child. A Syrian man carries the body of his nephew, recovered from the rubble. The volunteers remove an infant's body from the destroyed building. A Syrian woman carries the body of her infant after he was recovered. "This is a targeted strategy to terrorize civilians and to kill anybody and everybody who is in the way of their military objectives," Kerry said. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault also condemned the attacks and said the conflict has reached a "moment of truth" for the Council. Syria's regime says it is targeting terrorists in besieged Aleppo, a stronghold of opposition forces fighting the regime. "Everyone knows that there is only one way to save Aleppo and that is for an immediate end to the aerial bombardment that the Syrian regime and their Russian backers are pursuing," Rycroft said Saturday. </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> Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov, foreground, speaks at a briefing in the Defense Ministry in Moscow, Russia, on Friday, Oct. 7, 2016, with a montage in the background showing Secretary of State John Kerry shaking hands with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

UNITED NATIONS — Russia has vetoed a U.N. resolution drafted by France demanding an immediate halt to the bombing of the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo.

The vote in the Security Council on Saturday afternoon was 11 countries in favor, two against and two abstentions.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault had warned before the vote that the continued bombing of Aleppo was killing civilians and destroying hospitals and schools — "and has nothing to do with combatting terrorism."

"It is the annihilation of Aleppo," he said. </s> Washington (CNN) The United States has reached the preliminary conclusion that Russian warplanes bombed an aid convoy and warehouse belonging to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, two US officials told CNN.

"All the evidence we have points to that conclusion," one of the officials said.

The White House position is that Russia is responsible, whether it was Russian planes -- or the Syrian regime's -- that carried out Monday night's attack.

The aid convoy was hit in the area of Urum al-Kubra, west of Aleppo, prompting the United Nations to halt its aid operations in Syria.

It is not clear who was responsible for the strike, which the International Committee of the Red Cross said killed about 20 people as well as the director of the Red Crescent's Urum al-Kubra branch, Omar Barakat.

"All of our information indicates clearly that this was an airstrike. That means there only could have been two entities responsible," deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said Tuesday night, referring to Russia and Syria. He didn't specify which country's planes carried out the strike.

"We hold the Russian government responsible for airstrikes in this airspace given their commitment under the cessation of hostilities was to ground air operations where humanitarian assistance was flowing," Rhodes said, referring to the terms of a recent ceasefire brokered between the United States and Russia.

Russia denies it was responsible and says that terrorists carried out the attack.

Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Tuesday that analysis of video footage from drones of the strike show that militants were following the convoy, according to the Russian state news site Tass.

"It is clearly seen in the video that a terrorists' pickup truck with a towed large-caliber mortar is moving along with the convoy," he said.

Syria has also strongly its forces were behind the attack.

"Just when we think it cannot get any worse, the power of depravity sinks lower," Ban told world leaders convening Tuesday at the UN General Assembly annual meeting.

Eighteen of the convoy's 31 trucks were hit, the United Nations said. The convoy was due to deliver food and medical aid for some 78,000 people in eastern Aleppo, where an estimated 250,000 civilians are facing severe shortages as a result of a government siege.

Rebels, locked in a vicious civil war with the Syrian government, reportedly hold the area where the convoy was struck. Russia has been helping Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the fight, though it has said its efforts are focused on attacking terror groups such as ISIS that have flourished during the conflict.

The US military has been reviewing classified radar, signals and aerial surveillance intelligence.

Based on that intelligence and reports from the ground, it has concluded that only Russian warplanes were in a position to attack this location at the time, the official said.

For now, no intelligence indicates Syrian aircraft or helicopters were in the area, though that type of information could come to light later, the official said.

The official added that reports from the ground appear accurate about at least two waves of airstrikes -- a common Russian military practice. Trucks inside as well as outside the compound on the road were hit.

But the Obama administration has not yet fully decided how much information it wants to reveal, concerned that it will expose sensitive military intelligence capabilities to the Russians.

What about the the ceasefire?

Monday night's attack came just hours after Syrian authorities declared an end to the fragile ceasefire, which began September 12.

Soon afterward, Syrian warplanes resumed airstrikes in Aleppo, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and deadly violence returned across parts of the country.

The events have left the hard-fought ceasefire brokered by Russia and the US in tatters, although US officials said they believe the ceasefire agreement is still in place.

Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser, said the US preference is to continue with the ceasefire effort, paving the way for more cooperation between the Russian and US militaries in Syria, but that Moscow's actions could prevent further coordination.

"We have not seen good faith. This was an outrageous action," Rhodes told CNN's Michelle Kosinski. "It raises serious questions about whether or not this agreement moves forward."

He added, "In conflicts like this I think we have an obligation to continue to pursue whether there are diplomatic openings. If we can't, we walk away."

US Secretary of State John Kerry said before the convoy was struck Monday that any decisions about the ceasefire would be made between Washington and Moscow.

"The Syrians didn't make the deal," he said, "the Russians made the agreement."
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.