Assad Rejects Claims Syrian, Russian Forces Struck Aid Convoy En Route to Aleppo

In an interview with Associated Press news Agency Syrian President Bashar Assad rejected claims that Syrian or Russian forces were behind the attack on the humanitarian convoy near Aleppo.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Syrian President Bashar Assad on Thursday rejected the claims that Russian or Syrian forces were behind a recent attack on the humanitarian convoy en route to Aleppo.

"First of all, there have been tens of convoys from different organizations around the world coming to different areas in Syria for the last few years. It has never happened before, so why to happen now? Either way by Russians or Syrians. No, it is a claim," Assad told Associated Press news agency in the interview.

Meanwhile, US airstrikes on Syrian government troops in the southeastern province of Deir ez-Zor were intentional because they lasted for over an hour, Syrian President Bashar Assad said.

"It was definitely intentional, not unintentional as they claim," Assad said in an interview with AP published on the Syrian presidency website.

"It was four airplanes that kept attacking the position of the Syrian troops for nearly one hour, or a little bit more than one hour. You cannot commit a mistake for more than one hour," Assad stressed.

He maintained that Washington "doesn't have the will" to join Moscow in fighting terrorists in Syria as envisioned by a ceasefire agreement the two countries hammered out two weeks ago.