Russia and the United States were close to starting joint military action against militants in Syria’s Aleppo, Russian news agencies have quoted defence dminister Sergei Shoigu as saying. Russia backs the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, in the five-year-old Syria conflict, while the United States wants to see Assad step down. Shoigu said Russia had delivered aid to Aleppo and is helping to rebuild damaged water pumping stations. About 700,000 people were still living in Aleppo and residents in the eastern part of the city were “hostages of armed groups”, he added. Earlier on Monday the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said Syrian militants had used a temporary ceasefire around Aleppo to regroup.

Source: The Guardian August 16, 2016 00:45 UTC