US launches bid to save Syria truce
US Secretary of State John Kerry launched a desperate push Monday to salvage a ceasefire in Syria, as the country’s second city of Aleppo reeled from a week of fighting that killed hundreds of civilians.
With the two-month old truce brokered by the United States and Russia under severe threat, Kerry said Washington and Moscow had made progress in trying to contain the bloodshed, but warned it was premature to promise success.
The top US diplomat gave some of his most downbeat comments yet after meeting the United Nations Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura in Geneva, saying the conflict was “in many ways out of control and deeply disturbing to everybody in the world, I hope.”
The US and Russia have agreed to bolster the number of Geneva-based ceasefire monitors, Kerry told reporters, pledging to work “in the next hours” to rein in violence on the ground.
In and around Aleppo, a week of fighting has killed more than 250 people.
Kerry accused President Bashar al-Assad’s regime of deliberately targeting three clinics and a major hospital last week.
“The attack on this hospital is unconscionable,” he said. “And it has to stop.”