WASHINGTON -- The United States and Russia could approve Syrian government airstrikes as part of a new nationwide ceasefire, Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday, coming closer than any American official has to suggesting indirect U.S. co-operation with President Bashar Assad's government since Syria's civil war started five years ago.
Kerry said Assad's forces aren't supposed to bomb Syria's opposition any longer because of the truce that began at sundown Monday. But he said the government could continue going after al-Qaida-linked militants in certain, unspecified areas.
If calm holds after seven days, the U.S. and Russia would then co-operate on how to jointly combat the al-Qaida linked group once known as the Nusra front and now known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham. But the two powers also could approve Syrian combat missions against the group, he said.
The U.S. has never previously spoken of approving military operations by Assad, whom they blame for a war that has killed as many as a half-million people.
"Assad is not supposed to be bombing the opposition, because there is a ceasefire," Kerry told journalists at the State Department. "Now he is allowed ... to target Nusra. But that will be on strikes that are agreed upon with Russia and the United States in order to go after them."
Kerry implored all of Syria's warring sides to adhere to the cease-fire. He said there has been a reduction in violence in its first hours and that it offers an opportunity for peace.
But in Aleppo, the northern city that has emerged as the epicenter of the fighting, opposition media activist Mahmoud Raslan said government helicopters dropped crude barrel bombs on a contested neighbourhood. A doctor reported heavy shelling along the Castello road where supplies are expected to go through to reach rebel-held parts of Aleppo. The doctor spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
The new plan was hammered out after a marathon negotiating session between Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last Friday.
For it to work, Kerry said Assad's government must allow aid deliveries to besieged areas. And the rebels must stop intermingling with al-Qaida-linked militants, a problem that has hampered previous efforts to end the bloodshed.
Various militants backed by the U.S. and its Arab allies co-ordinate and even fight sometimes alongside al-Qaida-linked militants. Many Syrian and Russian operations have struck what U.S. officials describe as "moderate" forces that are "marbled" with the militants.
The new ceasefire is supposed to end such ambiguities, and Washington has been urging rebel groups to break ranks with extremists.
But Kerry's statement goes further, opening the possibility of the United States giving its stamp of approval for Syrian government attacks on forces Washington once supported.
State Department spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. wouldn't co-operate with Assad.
"There is going to be co-operation and co-ordination with Russia," he said.
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Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue and Phillip Issa in Beirut contributed to this report.
