Syria peace talks in trouble after intense Russian strikes

The latest push to end Syria's tangled conflict was in fresh disarray Tuesday as the government denied formal talks had begun and the opposition cancelled a meeting with the UN envoy following intense Russian air strikes.

The main opposition umbrella group attending the biggest effort yet to end the war called Russia's bombardment near Aleppo -- with 270 raids since Monday morning, according to monitors -- "unprecedented".

"Since last night a big massacre is taking place in Syria and nobody is doing anything. Nobody is saying anything, the international community is completely blind," said Salem al-Meslet from the High Negotiations Committee (HNC).

On Monday, UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura declared that indirect talks between the government and the opposition had officially begun in Switzerland, saying he hoped to "achieve something" by February 11.

But chief government negotiator Bashar al-Jaafari shot this down Tuesday, saying the talks were still "in a preparatory phase", that the opposition had failed to even name its negotiating team and that there was no agenda.

"We are still in the preparatory phase for indirect talks ... We still don't know who the opposition delegation is," Jaafari told reporters after meeting de Mistura, the third UN envoy for Syria since the war began in March 2011.

The opposition then cancelled a meeting with de Mistura scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, with HNC member Farah Atassi saying that "at this moment, there is no reason to repeat ourselves with de Mistura."

However, Interfax later reported that Russian deputy foreign minister Gennady Gatilov said de Mistura would again meet the opposition negotiators "tomorrow or the day after tomorrow" and that they "will explain their position and will announce the makeup of the delegation that will participate in talks",

The HNC has demanded the regime allow humanitarian access to besieged towns, stop bombing civilians and release thousands of prisoners -- some of them children -- languishing in regime jails.

It also expressed outrage at the regime offensive, backed by Russian jets and allied militants, that allowed government forces to edge closer to breaking a long-running rebel siege on two government-held Shia villages in Aleppo province.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said at least 18 civilians had been killed in the raids on Tuesday, including five women, three children and two emergency workers.

"We have never seen things like this since the beginning of the revolution," HNC spokeswoman Basma Kodmani said, calling the air raids "unprecedented".

"The regime's and Russia's actions gravely threaten the political process at this early stage," fellow HNC member Atassi said.