Syria peace talks enter final day as tensions boil over US-led air strike

geneva — Syria’s warring sides entered a final day of UN-backed talks on Friday with little sign of progress towards ending the conflict and with negotiations overshadowed by swelling tensions on the ground.

The sixth round of talks in Geneva was the latest effort to bring a political solution to the war, which has displaced millions and claimed more than 320,000 lives since 2011.

But the sluggish negotiations have been eclipsed by US accusations of new regime atrocities at a prison and the bombing of a pro-government convoy by US-led coalition warplanes. The international alliance — which usually strikes militants — for the first time hit regime-allied forces as they headed towards a remote coalition garrison near the southern border with Jordan, US officials said on Thursday.

Thestrik e wassharply condemned by Syria’s government. Speaking to

Such actions that were carried out against the Syrian armed forces... this is completely unacceptable

Gennady Gatilov, Russian minister

journalists after his final meeting with UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura in Geneva, governmentd elegation chief Bashar Al Jaafari slammed the “massacre caused by the American aggression on our country yesterday.”

The opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) spokesman Yehya Al Aridi meanwhile welcomed the strike, hailing “robust action against the foreign forces who have turned Syria into a killing field.”

The US-led coalition bombing the terrorist group Daesh in Syria and Iraq said it had struck pro-regime forces in southern Syria “that posed a threat to US and partner forces.”

Syrian state media gave no precise toll in the attack, but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, reported eight killed, “most of them non-Syrian.”

The event was not expected to ease de Mistura’s task in Geneva, where years of diplomatic efforts have failed to produce any concrete momentum towards ending the devastating conflict.

Russian deputy foreign minister Gennady Gatilov blasted the coalition strike on regime forces, saying it would take a toll on the political process in Geneva.

“Such actions that were carried out against the Syrian armed forces... this is completely unacceptable, this is a breach of Syrian sovereignty,” he was quoted as saying by state-run RIA Novosti in Switzerland. —