SYRIA condemned US Secretary of State John Kerry’s threats to prolong the war and partition the country yesterday.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry said Mr Kerry’s remarks ran “counter to reality” and attempted to “conceal his country’s responsibility for the terrorist crimes that Syria has been subjected to.”

Syria’s Sana news agency reported that 18 civilians had been killed in the government-held western part of Aleppo city over the past 24 hours by shelling from the rebel-occupied east.