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UPDATE 1825 GMT: The United States has suspended the planned Joint Implementation Center for intelligence-sharing with Russia, protesting Russian-regime attacks on opposition areas of Aleppo.

The JIC was to follow a seven-day US-Russian ceasefire, with American and Russian officials consulting over airstrikes on the Islamic State and the jihadists of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly Jabhat al-Nusra.

However, after the Syrian military ended the “freeze on hostilities” on September 19, Russia and the regime bombed a UN aid convoy and renewed bombing of Aleppo.

Secretary of State John Kerry threatened the suspension of links with Moscow on Wednesday, although he kept contacting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov by phone.

State Department spokesman John Kirby said, “Unfortunately, Russia failed to live up to its own commitments and was also either unwilling or unable to ensure Syrian regime adherence to the arrangements to which Moscow agreed.”

Hours before the announcement, the Kremlin said Russia had suspended participation in an agreement with the US to dispose of weapons-grade plutonium because of American “unfriendly actions”. It demanded that Washington reduce its military presence in NATO countries near Russia and cancel all sanctions against Moscow.

UPDATE 1545 GMT: The M10 hospital in opposition-held eastern Aleppo city has been bombed for a third time in a week, this time hitting construction workers trying to repair the facility from earlier strikes. At least three people have been killed.

The Syrian American Medical Society, which supports the hospital, reported:

The hospital was put out of service last Wednesday and then bombed again on Saturday, as doctors handled basic triage and treatment of patients.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Pro-Assad forces, enabled by intense Russian and regime bombing, have advanced farther in Syria’s largest city Aleppo.

Continuing their offensive to the north of the city, foreign militias and the Syrian military moved into the disused al-Kindi hospital.

Rebels took al-Kindi, which had been converted into a Syrian military barracks, in December 2013.

The pro-Assad forces have been putting more pressure on opposition-held eastern Aleppo city since re-imposing a siege in early September. Last week, Palestinian militia led the capture of the Handarat camp, near the vital al-Castello road claimed by the regime in early July, and begin the attacks on al-Kindi.

The advance also moved into part of the Shuqaif industrial area.

The Syrian military put out a statement, “The army high command calls on all armed fighters in the eastern neighborhood of Aleppo to leave these neighborhoods and let civilian residents live their normal lives.”

Rebel footage of the fighting in the Bustan al-Basha area:

Claimed footage of pro-Assad Iraqi militia in Aleppo:

Since renewing their aerial assault on September 19, Russian and regime aircraft have killed an estimated 500 civilians, damaged hospitals and knocked them out of service, and cut off the water supply to both regime and opposition areas with bombing of power lines supplying pumping stations.

Damascus and Moscow have defied a US call to suspend military flights and the threat of US Secretary of State John Kerry to cut off contacts with Russia, the American partner in the political process since September 2013.

See Syria Daily, Oct 2: Russian-Regime Bombing of Aleppo Continues, Damages Another Hospital

The UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Stephen O’Brien, said he was “deeply alarmed by the ferocious pummeling of eastern Aleppo”:

The health system is on the verge of total collapse with patients being turned away and no medicines available to treat even the most common ailments.

With clean water and food in very short supply, the number of people requiring urgent medical evacuations is likely to rise dramatically in the coming days.

The European Union supported the demand for humanitarian assistance, “The EU calls on all parties to urgently provide the necessary authoritizations for aid delivery and for medical evacuations to proceed.”

Report: Russia Killed 3,264 Civilians in 1st Year of Intervention

The pro-opposition Syrian Network for Human Rights, which documents casualties and abuses in Syria, reports that Russia killed 3,264 civilians in the first year of its military intervention.

Of the casualties, 911 were children and 619 women. There were 169 mass killings, with 147 documented cluster bombings and 84 cases of incendiary weapons.

The SNHR said 417 “vital civil facilities” were attacked. More than 30 medics, including seven women, 11 civil defense volunteers, and 12 media activists were among victims.

Senior Jihadist Commander Killed by US Drone Strike

A senior commander of the jihadists of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, has been killed by a drone strike in northwest Syria.

Ahmad Salamah Mabrouk, aka Abu al-Faraj al-Masri, and two companions died when a missile, believed to be fired by the US-led coalition, hit their car near Jisr al-Shughour in Idlib Province.

Jabhat Fatah-Sham confirmed the death in a message on Twitter.

In late July, al-Masri appeared to the right of JFS/Nusra leader Abu Mohammed al-Joulani as formal allegiance to Al Qa’eda was withdrawn and the group renamed itself.

JABHAT AL-NUSRA ANNOUNCEMENT 07-16

Suicide Bomber Attacks Near Regime Facility ih Hama City

A suicide bomber has detonated his explosives near a regime facility in Hama city.

A pro-regime site says at least 2 people were killed and at least 12 wounded in the attack in the Al-Hader district.

A regime official said that a second bomber was shot dead before he could detonate his explosive vest.

A pro-opposition site said the toll is higher, with “a number” of dead and wounded among regime forces. A photographer for State news agency SANA is also said to be a casualty.

Rebels have been closing on Hama city in an offensive that began in late August.

Video: Russian-Regime Airstrikes Knock Out Underground Hospital in Hama

The Syrian American Medical Society reports that Russian and regime airstrikes have knocked an underground hospital in northern Hama Province. The attack include Russian bunker-buster bombs as well as regime barrel bombs:

The Dr. Hasan Al-Araj Hospital, built inside a cave 50 feet inside a mountain, was hit by two waves of airstrikes, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. Only minor injuries were reported among medical staff, who were evacuated from the building along with equipment.

Opened in October 2015 near the town of Kaf Zita — which has been attacked by more than 1,800 barrel bombs and 600 airstrikes since 2012, according to activists — the hospital was the only one in a 30-km (19-mile) radius in northern Hama Province. It carried out more than 150 surgeries a month and treated more than 40 intensive care cases each month.

Ahmed al-Talfah, a spokesman for the north Hama Civil Defense, said of the first strike:

I’ve witnessed a number of hospital attacks in the line of duty, but this one was different. The bomb pierced through the layers of stone and bedrock overhead before finally detonating inside the hospital.

The second strike came after first responders evacuated about 35 patients and medical staff. “Fighter jets fired six additional airstrikes—both vacuum missiles and cluster bombs—which caused critical damage to the hospital’s infrastructure and medical devices,” said Dr. Abdullah al-Darwish, the hospital’s director and head of Hama’s Healthcare Directorate.

Staff say they plan to rebuild the facility.