Dubai: Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that his attempts to reach an agreement with US President Barack Obama on ending the bloodshed in Syria had not worked out.
“A united front to defeat terrorism has in fact not been created,” Putin told an audience of Russia experts gathered in southern Russia. “In Washington there were forces that did their best to ensure our agreements did not take off.”
Russia meanwhile denied having any involvement in an attack on a school in Idlib that killed scores of children.
The UN Children’s agency said airstrikes in Syria’s rebel-held northern Idlib province a day earlier may be the deadliest attack on a school since the country’s war began nearly six years ago, leaving 22 children and six of their teachers killed.
A team of first responders, the Syrian Civil Defense, and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Thursday that the Wednesday airstrikes killed at least 35, mostly children, when they struck in the village of Hass around midday. Initially, the estimated death toll was at 22. The airstrikes hit in a residential area housing a school complex, as children gathered outside.
UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake called the airstrikes an “outrage.” He added if it is determined that the airstrikes were deliberate, “it is a war crime.
“When will the world’s revulsion at such barbarity be matched by insistence that this must stop?” added the UNICEF director.
Asked about the attack, Russia’s UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin responded: “It’s horrible, horrible. I hope we were not involved.”
Syrian government forces and their Russian ally have been accused by rights groups of carrying out indiscriminate attacks on civilian infrastructure.
The White Helmets civil defence group released pictures of four rescue workers clambering over a mound of rubble in search of survivors after what it said was a “double-tap” strike on the school.
The raids hit Hass around 11:30 am (0830 GMT), an activist with the opposition Idlib Media Centre said.
“One rocket hit the entrance of the school as students were leaving to go home, after the school administration decided to end classes for the day because of the raids,” the activist said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Other activists from the province circulated a photograph on social media of a child’s arm, seared off above the elbow, still clutching the strap of a dusty black rucksack.
Shaky video footage depicted rescue workers sprinting towards the site of the raids and pulling a frail, elderly man out of a collapsed building.
The authenticity of the pictures and footage could not be independently verified.
The latest attacks took to 89 the number of civilians killed in air strikes on Idlib province in the past seven days, said the Observatory.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said either Russia or the Syrian government were responsible for the strike on the school.
“Who is responsible? In any case it is not the opposition because you need planes to launch bombs. It’s either the Syrians -- the regime of (President Bashar) Al Assad -- or the Russians,” Ayrault told a news conference.
Separately, the Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed suggestions from NATO that a Russian battle group in the Mediterranean would join the bombardment of Syria’s Aleppo as absurd, the RIA news agency reported on Thursday.
RIA cited the ministry as saying NATO had no reason to worry about the battle group and that the Russian air force had not flown any bombing runs in Aleppo for nine days.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned on Tuesday that the ships, headed for Syria, could be used to target civilians in the besieged city of Aleppo and to launch more air strikes.
Andrei Kelin, a senior Russian Foreign Ministry official, told RIA Stoltenberg’s statement was unhelpful.
“The concerns are not based on anything as our planes have not come near Aleppo for nine days. Our battle group is in the Mediterranean. Our ships have always had a presence there,” said Kelin.
“Why make some spurious suggestions and then make some political recommendations based on them? It is of course absurd.” The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has questioned Russia’s statements about a moratorium on bombing Aleppo, saying the city has been hit by strikes since a lull in fighting ended on Saturday.
- with inputs from agencies
