As the US and Russia step away from Syria, Europe steps in to fill the gap

UN releases satellite images revealing the scale of destruction in Aleppo.

Syrians walk amidst the rubble of destroyed buildings on October 3, 2016, following reported air strikes in the rebel-held town of Douma, on the eastern outskirts of the capital Damascus. Abd Dpumany Show more

GENEVA // Now that the US and Russia have given up working together on Syria, Europe has stepped into the breach in the quest to end the five-and-a-half-year war.

The French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault is heading to Moscow on Thursday and Washington on Friday in a bid to restart talks on a ceasefire in Syria, aiming to push for the adoption of a UN resolution that would “pave the way for a ceasefire in Aleppo and access to humanitarian aid for the population”.

France and Spain have both called for an immediate truce in Aleppo and a cessation of all military flights over the city where more than 270,000 are trapped under Syrian government siege.

Germany also hosted a meeting of senior foreign ministry officials from a group of Western nations in hopes of exploring ways out of the diplomatic impasse surrounding Syria’s civil war.

However, Russia immediately rejected any grounding of aircraft and questioned whether a resolution at this time would actually produce any results. It also dispatched two warships from the Crimea to the Mediterranean on Wednesday, a day after sending out an air defence missile system to Tartus in Syria.

Two days after the US cut off formal direct contact with Russia on Syria, the UN on Wednesday released stark satellite images showing the most recent destruction of Aleppo, which has been pounded by Syrian and Russian air strikes since the collapse two weeks ago of the ceasefire brokered by the US and Russia. Hundreds have ve died in the recent violence, including at least 100 children. .

The release coincided with a stepped-up offensive by Syrian government forces and their allies attacking the city from the south in a bid to penetrate opposition-controlled areas.

“Since the ceasefire has broken down, you certainly see an awful lot of new damage,” said Lars Bromley, a research adviser at UNOSAT.

Some of the images depict large craters, a “signature” that air strikes have done the damage. Artillery or mortar fire creates a different pattern of destruction, Bromley said.

The UN satellite images could provide significant insights on high-profile, disputed attacks — such as a deadly attack on a U.N.-backed humanitarian aid convoy west of Aleppo last month. Russia and Syria denied bombing the convoy and Russia claimed the damage was caused by a cargo fire.

“With our analysis, we determined that it was an air raid,” said Mr Bromley.

The convoy organisers had obtained all necessary clearances from the government and rebels as well as the Americans and Russians, who were operating aircraft in Syrian skies.

Overnight air strikes on a village in northern Syria were also reported on Wednesday by the UK-based monitoring group and a Kurdish news agency. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 19 civilians were killed, including three children. Turkish forces are suspected to have carried them out air strikes on Thulthana, a predominantly Kurdish village under ISIL control in northern Aleppo province,

There was no immediate comment from Ankara, but earlier Wednesday, Turkish military officials reported their forces had pushed ISIL out of four residential areas south of the town of Al-Rai, several miles from Thulthana village.

The Turkish military launched an offensive inside Syria in August, backing Syrian rebels, to expel ISIL militants from its borders and curb the advances of Syrian Kurdish forces, which Turkey sees as an extension of its own outlawed Kurdish rebels.

* Associated Press

* Reuters