France is to launch a new push for United Nations backing for a ceasefire in Syria that would allow aid into the city of Aleppo after some of the heaviest bombing of the war.

As diplomatic efforts resumed, a Syrian military source said army commanders had decided to scale back air strikes and shelling in Aleppo to alleviate the humanitarian situation there.

The Syrian army command said civilians in rebel-held eastern Aleppo were being used as human shields and a reduced level of bombardment would allow people to leave for safer areas.

France said Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault would travel to Russia and the United States on Thursday and Friday to try to persuade both sides to adopt a Security Council resolution to impose a new truce.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, architects of a ceasefire that collapsed last month amid bitter recriminations, discussed Syria by telephone on Wednesday, but no details emerged.

The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that Lavrov would meet Ayrault in Moscow on Thursday.

The French minister’s trip comes after the collapse of a ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia last month, which has been followed by intense Syrian and Russian bombing of rebel-held areas of Aleppo. Washington broke off talks with Moscow on Monday, accusing Russia of breaking its commitments.

For the past two weeks, a Russian-backed Syrian government offensive has been under way to capture eastern Aleppo and crush the last urban stronghold of a revolt against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that began in 2011.

“This trip is in the framework of efforts by France to get a resolution adopted at the U.N. Security Council opening the path for a ceasefire in Aleppo and aid access for populations that need it so much,” the French foreign ministry said.

The Security Council began negotiations on Monday on a French and Spanish draft resolution that urges Russia and the United States to ensure an immediate truce in Aleppo and to “put an end to all military flights over the city”.

Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said on Monday that Moscow was engaged in discussions on the draft text even if he was not especially enthusiastic about its language.

The draft text, seen by Reuters, urges Russia and the United States “to ensure the immediate implementation of the cessation of hostilities, starting with Aleppo, and, to that effect, to put an end to all military flights over the city.”

The draft also asks U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon to propose options for U.N.-supervised monitoring of a truce and threatens to “take further measures” in the event of non-compliance by “any party to the Syrian domestic conflict”.

A French diplomatic source said: “It’s all that’s left. We’re not fools. The Russians aren’t going to begin respecting human rights from one day to the next, but it’s all we have to put pressure on them.”

The collapse of the latest Syria ceasefire has heightened the possibility that Gulf states including Saudi Arabia and Qatar – backers of Syrian rebels – might arm the opposition with shoulder-fired missiles to defend themselves against Syrian and Russian warplanes, U.S. officials have said.

Qatar’s foreign minister said outside powers need to act fast to protect Syrians because foreign military backing for the government is “changing the equation” of the war.

In Aleppo itself, half of the estimated 275,000 Syrians besieged in the rebel-held eastern part of the city want to leave, the United Nations said.

Food supplies are running short and people are driven to burning plastic for fuel. Mothers were reportedly tying ropes around their stomachs or drinking large amounts of water to reduce the feeling of hunger and prioritise food for their children, the United Nations said.

“An assessment conducted in eastern Aleppo city concluded that 50 per cent of the inhabitants expressed willingness to leave if they can,” the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in Geneva.

A United Nations expert said that analysis of satellite imagery of a deadly and disputed attack on an aid convoy in Syria last month showed that it was an air strike.

Some 20 people were killed in the attack on the U.N. and Syrian Arab Red Crescent convoy at Urem Al-Kubra near Aleppo.

The United States blamed two Russian warplanes which it said were in the skies above the area at the time of the incident. Moscow denies this and says the convoy caught fire.

“With our analysis we determined it was an air strike and I think multiple other sources have said that as well,” Lars Bromley, research adviser at UNOSAT, told a news briefing.

In northern Syria, rebels were expecting stiff resistance from Islamic State in their attempt to capture a village that is of great symbolic significance to the jihadists, a rebel commander said.

With Turkish backing, rebels fighting under the Free Syrian Army banner have advanced to within a few kilometres (miles) of Dabiq, the site of an apocalyptic prophecy central to the militant group’s ideology. </s> United Nations – The UN Security Council began negotiations on Monday on a draft resolution seeking an immediate truce in Aleppo and calling for an end to all military flights over the Syrian city, where over a quarter million people in rebel-held areas are besieged by Syrian forces.

But Russia immediately rejected any grounding of aircraft and questioned whether a resolution at this time would actually produce any results.

The resolution drafted by France and Spain threatens “further measures” — diplomatic code for sanctions — should any party fail to comply with the truce, and it asks for a new UN-supervised truce monitor.

“We consider that this is our responsibility to do absolutely everything we can do, everything humanly possible to unite the Security Council behind our efforts to end the martyrdom in Aleppo,” France’s UN Ambassador Francois Delattre said before Monday’s meeting.

Russia intervened on behalf of its close ally Syria on September 30 last year, joining President Bashar Assad’s bombardment of both anti-government rebel groups and militant groups such as the Islamic State and the Fatah al-Sham Front, an al-Qaeda spinoff formerly known as the Nusra Front.

With Russia’s backing, Syrian forces have encircled the eastern half of Aleppo where continued attacks have repeatedly damaged medical facilities in violation of international law.

Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, whose country holds the rotating Security Council presidency this month, defended Russia’s military actions in Syria in the wake of bombings of hospitals and an aid convoy, saying Russia never deliberately targeted civilians.

“Had it not been for our involvement in Syria it might well be that the black flags will be flying over Damascus — it could well be,” Churkin said, referring to the flag of the Islamic State group.

Churkin said his country had concerns about the French resolution’s workability.

Rebel-held eastern Aleppo “has been taken hostage by Nusra and some others who are working with Nusra,” he said.

“The primary goal of Russia in that part of the world, in Syria and Iraq, is to throw out the terrorists. As long as the terrorists are there, there will be no peace and quiet for the civilians, in eastern Aleppo or anywhere else.”

Churkin said Russia is “a little bit baffled” that France called for a new monitoring mechanism for the ceasefire when there is already one in Geneva “which has been there for a long time and frankly has not been used very effectively”.

Russia, which is one of five veto-holding permanent members of the Security Council, has blocked a number of resolutions on Syria.

Churkin told a news conference that France said it wants united council support and doesn’t want to see a Russian veto.

“If they were sincere, we can have a resolution, I suppose, which would be more balanced,” Churkin said, but he said he wasn’t sure that many council members would like to see a resolution “that has no chance of working”.

Human Rights Watch called on the Security Council to demand that Syria and Russia immediately halt attacks in eastern Aleppo and ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to the several hundred thousand people trapped there.

“The Security Council should immediately adopt a resolution demanding an end to the slaughter. And Russia, itself involved in the bombing, should refrain from using its veto or risk further sullying its record as a permanent member of the council,” Louis Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. — AP. </s> UNITED NATIONS -- Rival resolutions on Syria backed by the West and Russia were defeated Saturday in the U.N. Security Council, offering no relief to the besieged city of Aleppo and leaving the key powers even more divided over a course of action in the war-ravaged country.

Russia vetoed a French-drafted resolution demanding an immediate halt to the bombing campaign that the Syrian government and Russia are carrying out against rebel-held districts in Aleppo. The rival Russian draft, which made no mention of a bombing halt, was rejected because it failed to get the minimum nine yes votes needed for approval by the 15-member council.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, the current rotating council president, said before the votes that members were engaging in "one of the strangest spectacles" in the Security Council, because they were meeting knowing that neither resolution would be adopted.

"This waste of time is inadmissible," he said.

The votes reflected the deep divisions in the U.N.'s most powerful body, which is supposed to ensure international peace and security but has failed to take action to end the more than five-year Syrian conflict.

The French-backed resolution received 11 "yes" votes, two "no" votes from Russia and Venezuela, and abstentions from China and Angola. The Russian resolution received four "yes" votes, nine "no" votes, and two abstentions.

It was the fifth veto by Russia of a Western-backed resolution aimed at ending the Syrian conflict.

The Russian draft resolution called for a separation of moderate and extremist forces in Syria. Britain's U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft called the resolution "a sham" that would do nothing to protect civilians from being killed in Aleppo.

Several diplomats said Russia's last-minute introduction of the rival resolution was meant to put a negative spotlight on both sides of the war in Syria. Instead of Russia being the lone veto on a resolution demanding an end to the bombing campaign by Syrian and Russian aircraft in Aleppo, now the Western powers have vetoed a resolution calling for a halt to fighting in that region.

France circulated its draft resolution a week ago, saying it wanted the council to unite behind it. But negotiations never got Russia on board, and French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault's visit to Moscow last week didn't, either.

Russia, a close Syria ally, has opposed any grounding of its warplanes, which have been supporting President Bashar Assad's military campaign.

Churkin called the French draft "very hastily put together."

"I frankly believe that this is designed not to make progress" in ending the current stalemate "but to cause a Russian veto," he told reporters after U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura briefed the Security Council in private Friday morning.

Churkin said it was "unprecedented" that the 15-member council would ask a permanent member to limit its activities, in this case requiring the Russian military to stop flights.

The French draft expresses the Security Council's intention to take "further measures" -- U.N. code for sanctions -- in the event that any party to the Syria conflict doesn't comply with its demands. There is no mention of this in the Russian text.

The Russian draft stressed "the urgent need to achieve and verify separating moderate forces from 'Jabhat Al-Nusra' as a key priority," referring to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, the militant group formerly known as the Nusra Front.

Key powers are divided over the course of action in war-ravaged Aleppo, and Syria in general, even as UNICEF's representative in Syria warned that the violence was causing "dire" humanitarian and psychological effects on both sides of Aleppo.

U.N. agencies are on "standby" to deliver assistance to the divided city, Hanaa Singer of the U.N.'s children agency told The Associated Press.

Also on Saturday, Syrian state media outlets and a Syria monitoring group said pro-government troops advanced in a northern district of eastern Aleppo, wrestling control from rebel fighters in their latest push into the besieged area.

Singer said conditions in besieged Aleppo are "terribly dire," with hospitals hit, doctors overwhelmed, and more than 100 children killed in bombings since Sept. 19. Conditions for thousands of displaced in the government-held part of the city also are deteriorating, with some of them being displaced for up to six times in the past three years, she said.

Singer returned last week from a weeklong trip to the government-held part of Aleppo where she visited thousands of displaced Syrians. Most are crammed in makeshift shelters, mosques, parks and churches after recently fleeing clashes on the front line between rebels and pro-government forces. In one case, a mother so desperate from the continuous displacement stabbed her baby girl, thinking she will save her daughter the misery of living on handouts and without a home, Singer said.

Describing the situation for thousands of families living in shelters in government-controlled Aleppo, Singer said: "These [are] the horrors in western Aleppo. God knows what is happening [in the case of] mental health or the psychological situation on the eastern [rebel-held] side."

Western Aleppo, controlled by the government, is separated from eastern rebel-held Aleppo by a few yards, sometimes by a single plastic sheet or pockmarked building. An estimated 275,000 people are living in the rebel-held part of Aleppo, with no international aid reaching the area since the first week of July. Besides the scarce assistance, it is also difficult to assess the needs with the ever-evolving violent situation, and lack of access for international aid groups, she said.

"I think we all agree, and especially if you have been so close in the area there and seeing the dire situation in the west, hearing about the horrible situation in the east, all we need now is [for] the violence to stop," Singer said. "The violence has to stop, and once the violence stops, the U.N., we absolutely stand ready. We are ready. We are actually on standby."

Singer said U.N. plans are in place for government-held Aleppo to accommodate people who may evacuate the besieged part of the city if a cease-fire takes effect.

According to medical charity Doctors Without Borders, hospitals in the eastern side of Syria's Aleppo have been attacked 23 times since July, damaging all eight facilities that have not yet been shuttered or destroyed. Since the U.S.-Russian cease-fire broke down Sept. 19, the situation in besieged Aleppo has deteriorated under relentless bombardment. Water stations and civil-defense centers also have been hit, while more than 320 people have been killed in eastern Aleppo in nearly three weeks of violence.

"In eastern Aleppo, the situation is terribly dire," Singer said. "Lots of schools and of hospitals have been hit; we understand that there are only 30 doctors there. We have information that at least over 100 children have been killed. We hear that because of the lack of services and lack of health facilities that some children, that doctors can't cope with all the cases, and some children in dire situation are left to die."

Information for this article was contributed by Edith M. Lederer and Sarah El Deeb of The Associated Press. </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 — Rival resolutions on Syria backed by the West and Russia were defeated in the U.N. Security Council on Saturday, offering no relief to the besieged city of Aleppo and the key powers even more divided over a course of action in the war-ravaged country.

Russia vetoed a French-drafted resolution demanding an immediate halt to the bombing campaign that the Syrian government and Russia are carrying out against rebel-held districts in Aleppo. The rival Russian draft which made no mention of a bombing halt was rejected because it failed to get the minimum nine "yes" votes needed for approval by the 15-member council.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, the current rotating council president, said before the votes that members were engaging in "one of the strangest spectacles" in the Security Council, because they were meeting knowing that neither resolution would be adopted.

"This waste of time is inadmissible," he said.

The votes reflected the deep divisions in the U.N.'s most powerful body which is charged with ensuring international peace and security but has totally failed to take action to end the more than 5-year Syrian conflict which has killed over 300,000 people and displaced millions.

The French-backed resolution received 11 "yes" votes, two "no" votes from Russia and Venezuela, and abstentions from China and Angola. The Russian resolution received four "yes" votes, nine "no" votes, and two abstentions.

It was the fifth veto by Russia of a Western-backed resolution aimed at ending the Syrian conflict.

When Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari started speaking, a number of ambassadors walked out, including the representatives of Britain, France, Ukraine and the United States.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, who addressed the session before the vote on the French resolution, warned that the continued bombing of Aleppo was killing civilians and destroying hospitals and schools — "and has nothing to do with combatting terrorism," as Syrian President Bashar Assad's government and its close ally Russia contend.

"It is the annihilation of Aleppo," he said, declaring that the continued bombing will leave the city in ruins, a place where citizens will be left to their "executioners."

He compared Aleppo's likely fate to Guernica during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, Srebrenica during the Bosnian war and the Chechen capital Grozny which was pummeled by the Russian army in the mid-1990s.

Russia's Churkin said the demand for a bombing halt in Aleppo was "not fleshed out" and would affect the government-controlled western part of the city as well as the rebel-held east.

He said the French resolution's adoption would have been the first where the Security Council decided on a course of action for a permanent council member without prior agreement — meaning that Russia would have been required to stop all flights and bombing of Aleppo.

Churkin noted that activity in Aleppo had gone down on Friday and "we hope this is a trend that will continue." </s> The Russian foreign ministry said yesterday a draft French UN Security Council resolution on Syria would have helped Islamist militants in the Aleppo area by protecting them from aerial bombing.

In a statement, the ministry also said the French text was politicised and one-sided.

Russia on Saturday vetoed the resolution, which demanded an end to air strikes on Aleppo and military over flights.

“An explicit attempt was made, by banning flights in the Aleppo area, to provide cover for the terrorists of Jabhat Al-Nusra and associated militants,” the ministry said.

A rival Russian draft text failed to get a minimum nine votes in favour. Moscow’s text removed the demand for an end to air strikes on Aleppo and put the focus back on a failed September 9th US/Russia ceasefire deal, which was annexed to the draft.

British UN ambassador Matthew Rycroft told Russian UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin: “Thanks to your actions today, Syrians will continue to lose their lives in Aleppo and beyond to Russian and Syrian bombing. Please stop now.”

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, backed by Russian war planes and Iranian support, have been battling to capture eastern Aleppo, the rebel-held half of Syria’s largest city, where more than 250,000 civilians are trapped.

“Russia has become one of the chief purveyors of terror in Aleppo, using tactics more commonly associated with thugs than governments,” US deputy ambassador to the United Nations David Pressman told the council.

He said Russia was “intent on allowing the killing to continue and, indeed, participating in carrying it out” and that what was needed from Moscow was “less talk and more action from them to stop the slaughter.”

A UN resolution needs nine votes in favour and no vetoes to be adopted. The power of veto lies with the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China. The Russian text only received four votes in favour, so a veto was not needed to block it.

The French draft received 11 votes in favour, while China and Angola abstained. Venezuela joined Russia in voting against it. It was the fifth time Russia has used its veto on a UN resolution on Syria during the more than five-year conflict.

Meanwhile, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday he had detected increasing US hostility towards Moscow and complained about what he said was a series of aggressive US steps that threatened Russia’s national security.

In an interview with Russian state television likely to worsen already poor relations with Washington, Lavrov blamed the Obama administration for what he described as a sharp deterioration in US-Russia ties.

“We have witnessed a fundamental change of circumstances when it comes to the aggressive Russophobia that now lies at the heart of US policy towards Russia,” Lavrov told First Channel TV. “It’s not just a rhetorical Russophobia, but aggressive steps that really hurt our national interests and pose a threat to our security.”

With relations between Moscow and Washington strained over issues from Syria to Ukraine, Lavrov reeled off a list of grievances against the US which he said had helped contribute to an atmosphere of mistrust that was in some ways more dangerous and unpredictable than the Cold War.

He said Nato had been steadily moving military infrastructure closer to Russia’s borders and lashed out at western sanctions imposed over Moscow’s role in the Ukraine crisis. </s> BEIRUT (Reuters) – Russia vetoed a French-drafted United Nations Security Council resolution yesterday that would have demanded an immediate end to air strikes and military flights over Syria’s Aleppo city and called for a truce and humanitarian aid access throughout Syria.

Meanwhile, a rival Russian-drafted resolution that aimed to revive a failed September 9, US and Russia ceasefire deal on Syria did not garner the minimum nine votes.

Fighting continued in the almost six-year conflict with Syrian government forces recapturing territory from insurgents in several western areas.

President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, backed by Russian air power and Iranian, Lebanese and Iraqi fighters on the ground, hold the upper hand around the key battleground of Aleppo, whose opposition-held eastern sector has been encircled for all but a short period since July.

The government side’s bombardment of Aleppo since a ceasefire brokered by Washington and Moscow in September collapsed after a week has drawn condemnation from the United Nations and countries supporting the Syrian opposition.

France, which opposes Assad, demanded in its draft resolution an end to air strikes and military flights over Aleppo city. Russia has backed Assad with a year-long air campaign against the rebels.

French President Francois Hollande yesterday had urged United Nations Security Council members not to use their veto against a resolution that calls for an end to bombardments of Aleppo.

Russia’s draft, which does not include that demand, urges Moscow and Washington to revive the ceasefire deal.

Syrian opposition negotiator Asaad al-Zoubi said on his Twitter account that its High Negotiations Committee would not accept any new ceasefire deal without guaranteed monitoring of it by European and Arab countries.

Rebels also suffered setbacks further northeast near the Turkish border yesterday, in fighting against Islamic State militants, British-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

Syrian government forces and their allies, backed by air raids, took over an area on Aleppo’s northern outskirts on Saturday, state media and the Observatory said.

The advance in the Awaija area strengthened their hold on areas surrounding rebel-held east Aleppo, the Observatory said.

Rebel official Zakaria Malahifji of the Aleppo-based Fastaqim faction denied there had been a government advance there.

But he did confirm government advances further south in Hama province, reported by pro-Damascus media and the Observatory.

The Syrian army and its allies recaptured several towns and villages from rebels in Hama’s northern countryside, reversing recent insurgent gains in the area.

Rebels had seized towns and villages north of Hama city after launching an offensive at the end of August in rare advances while insurgent factions were pressed elsewhere.

The government’s Hama advances were their first in the area since then, the Observatory said.

It said the government side had taken advantage of recent infighting between two Islamist insurgent groups in the countryside of Idlib, north of Hama’s provincial boundary.

In a separate government advance against insurgents near Damascus, the Syrian army and allied forces seized a large portion of the town of al-Hameh to the northwest of the Syrian capital, the Observatory said.

Russia’s air power has been crucial for strengthening Assad’s position in the past year, pounding rebels including foreign-backed factions.

Washington accuses Moscow and Damascus of war crimes for intentionally targeting civilians, aid deliveries and hospitals which have been hit particularly around Aleppo in recent weeks.

Moscow and Damascus say they are targeting terrorist groups.

The ceasefire deal brokered by Washington and Moscow in September was meant to pave the way for joint US-Russian targeting of extremists including al Qaeda and Islamic State.

All sides in the multi-sided Syria conflict, now in its sixth year, are fighting a number of separate battles against IS.

Members of the jihadist group recaptured several villages from foreign-backed rebels in their counter attack near the Turkish border, the Observatory said.

The rebels, whom Turkey has supported with tanks and air strikes, had been pushing towards the IS stronghold of Dabiq, a village of symbolic importance to the militants.

The stiff resistance the insurgents have encountered in recent days shows the challenge they face in capturing Dabiq and flushing the jihadist group out of more areas it controls in northern Syria. </s> The UN Security Council on Friday canceled an urgent meeting that had been called to discuss a US-Russian deal on Syria, at the request of both the United States and Russia, diplomats said.

During the scheduled meeting, US and Russian envoys were to present details of the joint agreement that calls for a ceasefire, the delivery of aid and joint targeting of Islamist rebels in Syria.

Russia, Syria's key ally, is pushing for the Security Council to endorse the agreement, but France and other council members have said they must first learn more details about the deal.

Under the deal, all sides were due to allow deliveries of food and other basic supplies to the battleground city of Aleppo after a ceasefire went into effect on Monday.

But on Friday, aid convoys positioned at the border with Turkey had yet to receive the all-clear to begin their journey to Aleppo.

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Thursday that the council could adopt a resolution backing the agreement during a high-level meeting on Syria to be held on Wednesday.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are due to attend the council talks, held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting. </s> BEIRUT — Russia vetoed a French-drafted United Nations Security Council resolution on Saturday that would have demanded an immediate end to air strikes and military flights over Syria's Aleppo city and called for a truce and humanitarian aid access throughout Syria.

Meanwhile, a rival Russian-drafted resolution that aimed to revive a failed September 9 US and Russia ceasefire deal on Syria did not garner the minimum nine votes.

Fighting continued in the almost six-year conflict with Syrian government forces recapturing territory from insurgents in several western areas.

President Bashar Al Assad's forces, backed by Russian air power and Iranian, Lebanese and Iraqi fighters on the ground, hold the upper hand around the key battleground of Aleppo, whose opposition-held eastern sector has been encircled for all but a short period since July.

The government side’s bombardment of Aleppo since a ceasefire brokered by Washington and Moscow in September collapsed after a week has drawn condemnation from the United Nations and countries supporting the Syrian opposition.

France, which opposes Assad, demanded in its draft resolution an end to air strikes and military flights over Aleppo city. Russia has backed Assad with a year-long air campaign against the rebels.

French President Francois Hollande on Saturday had urged United Nations Security Council members not to use their veto against a resolution that calls for an end to bombardments of Aleppo.

Russia’s draft, which does not include that demand, urges Moscow and Washington to revive the ceasefire deal.

Syrian opposition negotiator Asaad Al Zoubi said on his Twitter account that its High Negotiations Committee would not accept any new ceasefire deal without guaranteed monitoring of it by European and Arab countries.

Rebels also suffered setbacks further northeast near the Turkish border on Saturday, in fighting against Daesh militants, British-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

Syrian government forces and their allies, backed by air raids, took over an area on Aleppo’s northern outskirts on Saturday, state media and the observatory said.

The advance in the Awaija area strengthened their hold on areas surrounding rebel-held east Aleppo, the observatory said.

Rebel official Zakaria Malahifji of the Aleppo-based Fastaqim faction denied there had been a government advance there.

But he did confirm government advances further south in Hama province, reported by pro-Damascus media and the observatory.

The Syrian army and its allies recaptured several towns and villages from rebels in Hama’s northern countryside, reversing recent insurgent gains in the area.

Rebels had seized towns and villages north of Hama city after launching an offensive at the end of August in rare advances while insurgent factions were pressed elsewhere.

The government’s Hama advances were their first in the area since then, the observatory said.

It said the government side had taken advantage of recent infighting between two Islamist insurgent groups in the countryside of Idlib, north of Hama’s provincial boundary.

In a separate government advance against insurgents near Damascus, the Syrian army and allied forces seized a large portion of the town of Al Hameh to the northwest of the Syrian capital, the observatory said. </s> UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council on Friday canceled an urgent meeting that had been called to discuss a US-Russian deal on Syria, at the request of both the United States and Russia, diplomats said.

During the scheduled meeting, US and Russian envoys were to present details of the joint agreement that calls for a ceasefire, the delivery of aid in Syria.

Russia, Syria’s key ally, is pushing for the Security Council to endorse the agreement, but France and other council members have said they must first learn more details about the deal.

Under the deal, all sides were due to allow deliveries of food and other basic supplies to the battleground city of Aleppo after a ceasefire went into effect on Monday.
France seeks United States and Russian support for a Security Council resolution to impose a new truce that will allow aid into Aleppo, which has experienced two weeks of heavy Syrian and Russian bombing of rebel-held areas.