Syria says cease-fire still possible after airstrikes

mantha Power. “It’s apocalyptic what is being done in eastern Aleppo.”

Airstrikes on Aleppo on Monday killed at least six people, according to the Local Coordination Committees, an activist-run collective. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported hours later that 12 were killed, including three children.

President Bashar Assad’s media adviser told Al-Mayadeen TV that the Syrian government abided by the cease-fire but the rebels did not. Bouthaina Shaaban said once the truce expired, “our Syrian Arab army resumed its operations against terrorists.”

Al-Moallem accused the U.S., Britain, and France of convening the Security Council meeting a day earlier in order to support “terrorists” inside Syria. But he said ongoing communications between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov meant a truce agreement brokered two weeks ago is “not dead.”

Syria’s military declared the ceasefire ended one week ago.

The spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said the ceasefire is ineffective, but that Moscow is not losing hope for a political solution to the country’s crisis.

However, Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday that the Kremlin is concerned that “terrorists are using the cease-fire regime to regroup, to replenish their arsenals and for obvious preparations to carry out attacks.”

Peskov also took issue with harsh criticism by the United States and Britain over Russia’s actions in Syria.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the Syrian and Russian governments “seem intent on taking Aleppo and destroying it in the process.”

SANA VIA THE ASSOCIATED PRESS An anti-Syrian government fighter, left, carries his machine gun and looks at a Syrian policeman as he leaves the last besieged rebel-held neighborhood of Al-Waer in Homs province, Syria, on Monday. Syria said a cease-fire brokered by the U.S. and...