Kerry to travel to Geneva in show of support for Syria ceasefire: USState Department spokesman John Kirby said on Saturday that US Secretary of State John Kerry has talked on phone about the issue to UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura and with Riyad Hijab, who is a negotiator for foreign-backed opposition groups.
He will discuss "ongoing efforts to reaffirm the cessation of hostilities" and delivery of aid to besieged communities with his Saudi and Jordanian counterparts, the State Department said.
Almost 30 airstrikes hit rebel-held areas of Aleppo on Saturday as a temporary "regime of calm" declared by President Bashar al Assad's military took effect around the capital Damascus and northwest Syria.
Qatar's permanent envoy at the Cairo-based pan-Arab body has requested holding "a meeting to discuss the risky escalation in the city of Aleppo and the Syrian regime forces' massacres against civilians" there, a statement said.
According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, some 250 civilians have been killed in government air strikes and crossfire between government and rebel forces around Aleppo since April 22.
A new round of UN-backed peace talks is set to start on May 10 in Geneva.
Aleppo, capital of the northern province of the same name, is a key battleground of vital strategic significance to both sides in the Syrian civil war.
Anas Al Abde, president of the Syrian National Coalition, accused the government of violating the truce brokered by the U.S. and Russian Federation on 27 February "daily".
"The secretary expressed his deep concern about the deteriorating situation in Aleppo, where the ... regime (of President Bashar al-Assad) continues to escalate the conflict by predominantly targeting innocent civilians and parties to the cessation of hostilities - not Nusra, as the regime falsely claims", Kirby said in a statement. "Such attacks are direct violations of the cessation and must stop immediately", he declared.
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