Kerry says U.S. may suspend cooperation with Russia in Syria

Tribune News Service

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday threatened to suspend U.S. cooperation with Russia concerning the conflict in Syria, following heavy Russian and Syrian airstrikes on civilian neighborhoods in the divided city of Aleppo.

The warning signaled growing frustration and anger in the Obama administration at what it sees as a widening Russian effort to prop up Syrian President Bashar Assad, rather than focus on defeating the Islamic State and other extremist groups in the country’s multisided civil war.

In a telephone conversation with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, Mr. Kerry “expressed grave concern” over the “drastic escalation” of air attacks since the breakdown of a cease-fire last week, State Department spokesman John Kirby said.

In recent days, airstrikes with bunker-buster and incendiary bombs have killed hundreds of civilians in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, and targeted hospitals, water supplies and air raid shelters, U.S. officials say.

Syrian government shelling and airstrikes in Aleppo landed near a bread distribution center and two hospitals Wednesday, killing seven people and putting at least one of the medical facilities completely out of service, activists and medics said.

In addition to the devastation, desperately needed convoys of food, medicine and other supplies have been blocked from many besieged enclaves because conditions are deemed too dangerous. At least one aid convoy was attacked.

An estimated 250,000 people live in eastern Aleppo, an area that is controlled by rebel forces and has been the chief target of the onslaught by Syrian and government forces and their Russian allies.

Russia and the United States lead an international task force aimed at ending the civil war, and diplomats from Moscow and Washington helped broker a partial cease-fire early this year and again this month. Both efforts soon collapsed.

Mr. Kirby said the suspension of cooperation would include the so-called joint implementation center, which was supposed to function as a hub for greater U.S. and Russian cooperation in the war, including shared targeting and intelligence gathering.

The Pentagon privately opposed creation of the joint center.

Russia strongly supports Assad’s government in Damascus and entered the war on his side a year ago, saving it from likely defeat.