The United Nations suspended all aid convoys in Syria, the day after a deadly airstrike on trucks loaded with crucial supplies of food and medicine. The airstrike came after the Syrian military had declared an end to a seven-day partial cease-fire.
Stephen O’Brien, the head of the U.N. agency that coordinates aid, said in a statement that the attack would amount to a war crime if it were found to have targeted humanitarian aid workers.
The airstrike came as workers were unloading aid. It killed a senior official of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and some civilians, but initial reports that 14 people had died could not be confirmed.
Repeated strikes by aircraft destroyed 18 of 31 trucks that the U.N. said had been clearly marked as a humanitarian convoy.
The trucks were carrying wheat flour, 9 tonnes of medicine and winter clothing for about 78,000 people.
The attack came shortly after the Syrian army had announced that the partial cease-fire was over and resumed offensive operations, reportedly including airstrikes on rebel-held parts of the city of Aleppo.
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