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Russia said to send more warplanes to Syria, diplomacy ‘on life support’

Moscow and Syria’s president spurned a US-Russian brokered ceasefire agreed to this month and launched attacks on rebel-held areas in Aleppo

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Syrians emerge from a dust cloud following a reported air strike on Kafr Batna, in the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta area, on the outskirts of the capital Damascus. Photo: AFP

Russia is sending more warplanes to Syria to ramp up its air campaign, a Russian newspaper reported on Friday, as the United States said diplomacy to halt the violence was “on life support” but not dead yet.

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Fighting continued to intensify a week into a new Russian-backed Syrian government offensive to capture rebel-held eastern Aleppo and crush the last urban stronghold of a revolt against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that began in 2011.

Moscow and Assad spurned a US-Russian brokered ceasefire agreed to this month and launched attacks on rebel-held areas in Aleppo in potentially the most decisive battle in the Syrian civil war.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by telephone for a third straight day, with the top Russian diplomat saying Moscow was ready to consider more ways to normalise the situation in Aleppo.

But Lavrov criticised Washington’s failure to separate moderate rebel groups from those the Russians call terrorists, which had allowed forces led by the group formerly known as the al-Nusra Front to violate the US-Russian truce agreed on September 9.
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US Secretary of State John Kerry. Photo: AFP
US Secretary of State John Kerry. Photo: AFP

The United States made clear on Friday that it would not, at least for now, carry through on the threat it made on Wednesday to halt the diplomacy if Russia did not take immediate steps to halt the violence.

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