Russian officials on Tuesday said Russian and Syrian warplanes did not hit a United Nations aid convoy near Aleppo with airstrikes Monday.
“Russian and Syrian warplanes did not carry out any airstrikes on a UN humanitarian aid convoy in the southwest of Aleppo,” Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement Tuesday, according to RT, a Russian-owned, American-based news outlet.
Instead, the Russian minister said the militants who controlled the area could have been behind the attack, which left 21 people dead. Russia had sent drones along with the convoy to monitor its progress through the rebel-held territory.
“We have closely studied the video footage from where the incident took place and we did not find any signs of any ammunition having hit the convoy. There are no craters, while the vehicles have their chassis intact and they have not been severely damaged, which would have been the case from an airstrike,” Konashenkov said.
“All of the video footage demonstrates that the convoy caught fire, which strangely happened almost at exactly at the same time as militants started a large-scale offensive on Aleppo.”
The Russian Ministry of Defense also tweeted what appears to be drone footage of the convoy.
#СИРИЯ Видео с #БПЛА движения гуманитарного конвоя в провинции #Алеппо выявило новые детали https://t.co/cgwElHebyO pic.twitter.com/6a5gqNYqxn
— Минобороны России (@mod_russia) September 20, 2016
U.S. officials said Tuesday they believe Russia is behind the bombing, which forced the United Nations to halt aid to the war-torn region.
A local witness told Reuters the hours-long attack began with “an hour of extremely fierce bombing” and was followed by two barrel bombs. The aid trucks were struck just west of Aleppo, but it is not clear which organization the trucks belonged to or the number of casualties.
The city and surrounding areas have been hit by 35 missile strikes since the truce, brokered by the U.S. and Russia, was called off by Syria’s military earlier Monday. Russian President Vladimir Putin has backed Syrian President Bashar Assad, making it unclear which nation was behind Monday’s strikes.
