France Calls for Emergency UNSC Meeting Amid Escalating Aleppo Disaster
France called for an emergency U.N. security council meeting, convening today, to discuss the catastrophic humanitarian situation unfolding in Aleppo, Al Jazeera reported.
Nearly 20,000 people have been displaced in the past 72 hours by a government offensive on eastern Aleppo, according to the Red Cross. Civilians fleeing the assault on rebel-held territory have crossed into both Kurdish and government-held areas, others escaping deeper into opposition areas.
“France and its partners cannot remain silent in the face of what could be one of the biggest massacres of civilian population since World War II,” said France’s U.N. ambassador Francois Delattre.
Under siege since July and facing continued aerial bombardment, eastern Aleppo is running out of food supplies.
“The future of Aleppo is in the hands of the regime and Russia, and we urge the regime and Russia to stop the bombing and let the aid go through,” said the U.K.’s U.N. ambassador Matthew Rycroft.
The situation in Aleppo can be sorted out by the end of this year, said the Russian deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov on Wednesday, Reuters reported.
“We are hoping for this of course,” he was quoted by the RIA news agency as saying. “We need to force these terrorists out in the same way as they need to be forced out in Mosul and in Raqqa. It’s a general task.”
Russia is a key ally of the Syrian government of president Bashar al-Assad, who routinely refer to their opposition as “terrorists.”
Hezbollah, Government Positions Targeted by Alleged Israeli Airstrikes
Military vehicles and a weapons cache were hit in reported Israeli airstrikes on Syrian government and Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah positions in Syria, IBT reported.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have neither confirmed nor denied the attack, which reportedly took place on Tuesday night, targeting a convoy on the Damascus–Beirut highway.
At least four explosions were heard around the capital, Damascus, with no reports of casualties yet. The weapons cache and the convoy of military vehicles were under the control of Hezbollah, a key Syrian government ally.
Earlier this week, the IDF issued a statement warning that it “will not hesitate to act against terror groups that operate against the State of Israel,” following an attack by four so-called Islamic State (ISIS) gunmen near the Occupied Golan Heights border.
Human Error Responsible for Mistaken U.S. Airstrike in Syria, Pentagon Says
A series of “unintentional human errors” led to a September 17 U.S.-led coalition airstrike on Syrian government positions instead of ISIS militants according to a U.S. military investigation, Reuters reported.
More than 60 Syrian soldiers were killed in the attack according to Russia, a key ally of the Syrian government.
“These people get it right far more often than not, but this time they came up short,” said Brigadier General Richard Coe, who led the investigation. Errors ranged from target misidentification to communication mistakes with Russia, he said.
The mistakes continued for 27 minutes after the strikes began, during which 15 airstrikes took place on Syrian government positions. Russian military tried to inform their U.S. counterparts that the targets were not so-called Islamic State militants, but the designated U.S. military contact was not available for 27 minutes. The U.S.-led coalition had also given Moscow the wrong coordinates before the airstrikes took place.
“As we understand it, based on the investigation, there was no malice here … This is what they believed to be an appropriate target,” said Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook in a press conference on Tuesday.
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