MOSCOW, September 20 /TASS/. The Russian Red Cross public charitable organization has been outraged by a rebel attack on a joint aid convoy sent by the United Nations and the Syrian Red Crescent Society near the city of Aleppo, Raisa Lukutsova, the Russian Red Cross head, said in an interview aired by the Govorit Moskva (This is Moscow) radio station.
- Russian official accuses US of shifting blame for Syrian aid convoy shelling
- Russia, Syria did not deliver strikes on UN aid convoy near Aleppo — ministry
- Syrian side ready to guarantee safe passage to aid convoys — Russian Defense Ministry
- Kremlin sees little hope for restoring ceasefire in Syria
- Kremlin: US-led coalition’s erroneous air strike complicated situation in Syria
"The entire Russian Red Cross and all our volunteers have been outraged by the recent attack on the international aid convoy. First of all, our organization would like to present its condolences to the Syrian Red Crescent Society. What happened to the relief convoy goes beyond is below any human moral. All this is arousing our concern and indignation," Lukutsova said.
Earlier, the New York-based United Nations headquarters received a report that a joint relief convoy sent by the United Nations and the Syrian Red Crescent Society had come under fire near Aleppo on September 19. There were human casualties. The AFP news agency said, referring to the International Federation of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent, that about 20 civilians and an employee of the Syrian Red Crescent Society had died from the shelling.
Later, the United Nations announced a halt in dispatching aid convoys into Syria for security problems. Syria’s Red Crescent Society also suspended its activities in Aleppo in a sign of protest against the shelling.
Earlier on Tuesday, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that neither Russian nor Syrian warplanes had delivered air strikes at the U.N. humanitarian convoy in the southwestern part of Aleppo.