BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on developments in Syria, where a cease-fire is faltering further after airstrikes hit an aid convoy overnight (all times local):
4:20 p.m.
A rescue worker who witnessed the strikes on a Red Crescent warehouse and trucks carrying U.N. aid in Syria says more than 20 missiles pounded the area for hours, even hitting his team as they searched the debris for survivors.
Hussein Badawi, who leads the Syrian Civil Defense — also known as the White Helmets — in Uram al-Kubra, says Tuesday the strikes came from helicopters and land missiles.
He accuses Syrian and Russian aircraft of taking part in an attack that lasted more than two hours, covering a 100 yard-radius. Badawi's team arrived on the scene after the first land missiles hit.
Another witness, Mohammed Rasoul, says the convoy was "erased from the face of the earth."
Badawi says the rescue effort was hampered by the dark and 11 strikes that came while the rescue team was searching for survivors.
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3:50 p.m.
Russia's Defense Ministry spokesman says the deadly attack on an aid convoy in Syria the previous night does not appear to have been from an airstrike.
Igor Konashenkov says that the Russian military has "carefully studied the video recordings of the so-called activists from the scene and found no signs that any munitions hit the convoy."
Konashenkov remarks on Tuesday were reported by the state news agency Tass. He denied that Russian warplanes or those of the Syrian government had conducted any airstrikes on the aid convoy.
He says that "everything shown on the video is the direct consequence of the cargo catching fire, and this began in a strange way simultaneously with militants carrying out a massive offensive in Aleppo."
___Syria's military is also denying it was behind airstrikes that hit an aid convoy in northern Syria, killing more than a dozen people the night before.
Earlier, the Russian military denied it was behind the strikes.
Syrian state TV quoted an unnamed military official as saying that reports about the Syrian army targeting an aide convoy are not true. Tuesday's report came after an aid convoy was hit in the northern province of Aleppo.
The airstrikes hit a truck convoy on Monday night, killing around 20 people, including a local Syrian Red Crescent volunteer.
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3:15 p.m.
Russia's Defense Ministry is denying that Russian warplanes or those of the Syrian government conducted the deadly airstrikes that targeted an aid convoy in northern Syria the previous night.Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov says that "no kind of air attack on a humanitarian convoy of the United Nations in the southwest outskirts of Aleppo was conducted by Russian or Syrian aviation."
His remarks were carried on Tuesday by the state news agency Tass.
The airstrikes on Monday night hit a truck convoy, killing around 20 people, including a local Syrian Red Crescent volunteer.
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3 p.m.
The International Committee of the Red Cross says around 20 civilians were killed in the airstrikes that hit an aid convoy in northern Syria the previous night.
ICRC said in its statement on Tuesday that the dead include a member of the Syrian Red Crescent.
ICRC president Peter Maurer says the attack was a "flagrant violation of international humanitarian law" and "totally unacceptable."The statement says the civilians were killed as they were unloading trucks carrying vital humanitarian aid and that much of the aid was destroyed, depriving thousands of much-needed food and medical assistance.
Syrian activists and paramedics had said earlier that the airstrikes killed 12 people.
___ 2:15 p.m.
A member of the Syrian Civil Defense — a group of volunteer first responders also known as the White Helmets — has criticized the U.N. humanitarian aid agency for suspending all convoys in Syria.
Ibrahim Alhaj told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Syrian civilians will pay the price for the decision.
The U.N. humanitarian aid agency's decision came after deadly airstrikes on aid trucks the previous night that activists said killed at least 12 people, mostly truck drivers and Red Crescent workers.
Elhaj says the U.N. should have condemned the attacks on the convoy rather than suspending aid.
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