The death toll from Monday's airstrikes against a city west of Aleppo in one of the so-called "de-escalation" zones has risen to 61, an NGO said on Tuesday, showing how fragile the agreements are. concluded to reduce the level of violence in war-torn Syria.
Jihadist rebels have accused Russia of carrying out the raids and said they would retaliate against forces of President Bashar al-Assad and his supporters, mainly Russia and Iran.
According to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the market in the city of Atareb, west of Aleppo, was bombed three times on Monday, killing at least 61 people.
According to the same NGO, most of the victims were civilians. Atareb is within one of the so-called de-escalation zones, defined by an agreement between Russia and Iran (which supports Damascus in the six-year Syrian war) on the one hand and Turkey (which supports the rebels) on the other. . The goal was to reduce bleeding.
But fighting continues in many areas where these zones have been established (Aleppo, Idlib, Raqqa, Deir Ezzor, Hama). Jan Lgeland, a UN humanitarian official, said the agreements had indeed led to a "de-escalation of the conflict" but had recently "escalated hostilities".
The de-escalation zones were defined based on the so-called Astana process, talks between envoys from Moscow, Tehran and Ankara in the Kazakh capital.
In September, it was agreed to deploy observers to the demilitarized zone in Idlib province, which is largely controlled by Islamist insurgents.
Following the raids in Atareb, the coalition of jihadist groups Tahrir al-Sam denounced the ceasefire talks and vowed to continue the war against the Syrian government and its allies.
"This attack (…) confirms for us that there is no solution if we do not fight," he said. In the Tahrir al-Sam alliance, one of the main components is the so-called Support Front (Jabhat al-Nusra), which changed its name last year when it claimed it had severed ties with al-Qaeda.