Aleppo aid convoy attack ‘was an air strike’

A UN satellite imagery analyst has said the attack on an Aleppo aid convoy on September 19 "was an air strike".

At least 12 people were killed in the attack on Syrian Red Crescent trucks carrying UN-supplied food.

It is thought 18 trucks were destroyed, along with food intended for tens of thousands of people cut off by war in the rural west of the city.

Aid officials said it was hit from the air while unloading food at a warehouse.

Most of those killed are thought to have been aid workers.

Stephen O'Brien, the UN's emergency relief coordinator said at the time the convoy was marked and its route was provided to all parties in the conflict.

He said: "Let me be clear, if this callous attack is found to be a deliberate targeting of humanitarians, it would amount to a war crime."
The aid coordinator called for the investigation into the attack - which led to the imagery analyst's finding.

A senior US official made it clear they held Russia responsible for the bombing shortly after the attack.

He said: "We don't know at this point whether it was the Russians or the regime.

"In either case, the Russians have the responsibility certainly to refrain - refrain from taking such action themselves, but they also have the responsibility to keep the regime from doing it."

Russia is an ally of President Bashar al-Assad's regime in the war-torn country.

Both declare they were not responsible for the attack.

The attack came at the end of a fragile week-long ceasefire brokered by Russia and the US.

Government forces and rebels have been embroiled in a bloody civil war in Syria for five years.

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