Kerry demands Russia, Syria ground warplanes to save truce

An impassioned Kerry faced off with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the UN Security Council in New York, during a tense televised showdown, saying the bombing of an aid convoy in Syria raised "profound doubt whether Russia and the Assad regime can or will live up to" ceasefire obligations.

Speaking before Kerry, Lavrov told the 15-member Security Council: "One needs to refrain from emotional instincts, from rushing to the microphone immediately to comment on something; a probe should be conducted (into the aid convoy attack)."

Listening to Lavrov made him feel like he was living in a "parallel universe", Kerry said.

"To restore credibility to the process we must move forward to try to immediately ground all aircraft flying in those key areas in order to de-escalate the situation and give a chance for humanitarian assistance to flow unimpeded," Kerry said.

The key areas are places where humanitarian aid needs to be delivered and where Syrian government forces have been accused of targeting civilians.

The aim of the ceasefire deal between the United States and Russia, which took effect on Sept. 12, is to facilitate aid access to besieged areas and allow the pair to jointly target Islamic State jihadists.

More than 300,000 people have been killed and half of Syria's 22 million people have been uprooted since a crackdown by President Bashar al-Assad on pro-democracy protesters in 2011 sparked a civil war. Islamic State militants used the chaos to seize territory.