Anna Neistat, Human Rights Watch, said many people had been killed in Azaz
16 August 2012 Last updated at 12:01 ET
Russia's foreign ministry has said that if the United Nations were to pull out of Syria, it would have "serious negative consequences" for the region.
Syria crisis: Russia warns against UN withdrawal
The warning comes as the UN prepares formally to end its observer mission in Syria.
The mission's mandate expires on Sunday and the UN has said the continuing violence means it will not be renewed.
Fresh fighting was reported in Aleppo on Thursday, with dozens reported killed in an attack on a bakery.
Meanwhile, more details have emerged of an air strike on the nearby town of Azaz, close to the Turkish border, on Wednesday. The US-based group Human Rights Watch (HRW) says 40 people are now known to have died there.
The strike injured more than 100 people, said HRW, and destroyed an entire block of housing.
Many of the wounded were taken to Turkey for treatment and Turkish media said at least 13 of them died in hospital in Kilis, a few miles north of the border.
"They attacked us with a warplane. Twenty-eight people from my family died," one wounded survivor in Kilis hospital said.
Syrian activists said the government carried out attacks in several areas on Thursday, including suburbs of Damascus as well as the provinces of Idlib, Deir al-Zour, Homs and Deraa.
At least 36 people were reported to have died when a bakery in the Qadi Askar area of eastern Aleppo was struck.
Unverified video footage emerged on activist websites showing several bodies lying in the street as local people rushed to take the wounded away for medical treatment.
UN presence
During talks with the US State Department, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov "stressed the importance of maintaining the UN presence in Syria", the ministry said in a statement.
"It was stressed that the exit of the UN from Syria would have serious, negative consequences not only for the country, but for the whole region," said the statement.
The UN's observer mission, which was part of outgoing UN and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's six-point peace plan, expires on Thursday.
The mission is seen as having failed because it has not stopped the violence and the government has not withdrawn its heavy weaponry, so it is not expected to be renewed.
But the BBC's Barbara Plett at the UN says Secretary General Ban Ki-moon wants some form of UN presence to remain in the country.
The Security Council is expected to accept his proposal for a small political liaison office - attached to a yet-to-be appointed new special envoy - to keep a dialogue going between all parties until peace talks can be held, says our correspondent.
Aid effort
Meanwhile, the UN's humanitarian chief, Valerie Amos, has warned that 2.5 million people in Syria are in need of aid.
Speaking in Damascus, where she met officials including Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi, Baroness Amos repeated her call to the Syrian government to ease restrictions on organisations seeking to help with the aid effort.
She said funding shortages were preventing the UN from effectively distributing supplies.
On a visit to a refugee camp housing 7,000 displaced Syrians in Jordan, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius described their situation as "extremely precarious" and promised that his country would do its best to help.
"We consider Assad to be butchering his own people. He must leave, and the sooner he goes the better," he said.
Syrian government envoy Bouthaina Shaaban, who was visiting China, praised Beijing and Moscow for taking a "very different stance" from the West which she accused of "supporting with arms and money people who are inciting the civil war in Syria".
Russia and China have used their veto at the Security Council to block UN resolutions condemning the Syrian government's use of violence.
Activists say some 23,000 people have been killed since the uprising against President Assad began in March last year. Tens of thousands of people have also fled their homes.
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Today is
" Russia Warns "
Lets see, the Syrian conflict have been going on for 17 plus months. The Arab League originally failed in it's initial idiotic attempt to beat it's chest at Syrian President Al-Assad, and Assad simply told the Arab League "where to go stick their recommendations".
Then the incompetent Arab League took their idiotic recommendations to the U.N., and the U.N. played the typical game of "who's the biggest influence on the block", by, actually discussing the Syrian crisis "seriously", and considering the Arab League recommendations, made some adjustments and actually voted on those new recommendations, as if the U.N. actually mattered.
But..., NNNNNOOOO...., in the typical U.N. fashion, all it takes is "1" dumb ass nation to "veto" the vote, and the entire U.N. can't take any actions what so ever...., which is exactly what "fukin" RUSSIA & CHINA did..., they vetoed the vote to sanction Al-Assad in February 2012, and have done so 2 additional times since.
Once the U.N. was vetoed by Russian and China, Al-Assad new that he couldn't be stopped and he unleashed his wrath on the civilians and ever since the first veto by Russia and China, crimes against humanity have been taking place daily, to include random rapes and taking woman, holding them, and raping them over and over again.
6 Months since the original veto by Russia & China, and the only attempt to bring some semblance of humanity back to Syria was met by another middle finger by Al-Assad..., in Kofi Annan's effort to request some dumb ass 6 point plan for Assad to submit to, as if "Kofi" had the magic touch when the Arab League and the U.N.'s attempts failed miserably.
Now that the Assad's regime is crumbling and a end is close, and not because of anything the United Nations or the Arab League did, it's because the members of Assad's regime are either being killed or their turning against Assad by defecting to the other side.
The end isn't far away, and the Syrian Nation is in turmoil, with Assad completely going all out by using his Air Force to strike Hospitals, Schools and Bakeries that may be used by the rebels.
The end is inevitable, and frankly, there ain't nothing no nation can do at this point, other than get out of the way until Assad is either killed by the rebels or killed by one of his own staff.... it's inevitable.
AND NOW,,,, RUSSIA.... has the audacity to say that if the U.N. pulls out of Syria, it would mean "serious negative consequences".
Maybe Russian representatives have been drinking to much of that Vodka over the past 17 months, and completely lost their memory of the veto's and the resulting degradation, tortures, murders, and destruction that have taken place since Russia's and China's veto's.
WOOOOWWW,,, you have got to be out of your mind Russia.... all of a sudden,,, your concerned for the welfare of the Syrian people.....
Well.., guess what, the only Syrians that are left in Syria are the few that have not been affected by any fighting as of yet, and those that have no where else to go, and have survived all the horrific elements of war.
I find it truly amazing that Russia is actually still on the board of the United Nations, as well as China, because if those two nations had not blocked sanctions in February of 2012, this entire situation may have a different ending, and perhaps the lives of some that have died over the past 3 months, may have been spared.
Good Job Russia..., Good Job United Nations, and Good Job Arab League, you all failed miserably, and it's my opinion, the U.N. and the Arab League need to be dissolve for falsifying credentials and fraud, because they never ever had the capabilities to handle the Syrian crisis, and due to their existence over the past 30 years, that lead the world to believe that the U.N. & The Arab League had the degree of influence to deal with this type of crisis, but, the have been proven to not have been capable of doing anything, the entire world could have taken a different perspective on the Syrian crisis.
In My Opinion
ASKFMB
8/16/2012
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