London: British Prime Minister David Cameron announced yesterday that a Syria donors’ conference in London had raised over $11bn for humanitarian aid over the next four years.

“Today’s achievements are not a solution to the crisis — we still need to see a political transition” he told the conference. “But with today’s commitments... our message to the people of Syria and the region is clear — we will stand with you and support you for as long as it takes.”

At the end of “Supporting Syria & the Region London 2016’ forum Cameron told a news conference that donors had pledged $6bn for this year and $5bn to be spent by 2020.

As world leaders gathered for the forum to tackle the world’s worst humanitarian crisis Turkey reported a new exodus of tens of thousands fleeing air strikes. Underlining the desperate situation on the ground in Syria Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said tens of thousands of Syrians were on the move towards his country to escape aerial bombardments on the city of Aleppo. “About 70000 people in the camps in north Aleppo are moving towards Turkey.”

Turkey is already hosting more than 2.5 million refugees and Jordan and Lebanon are also bearing the brunt of the refugee exodus.

“With people reduced to eating grass and leaves and killing stray animals to survive on a daily basis that is something that should tear at the conscience of all civilised people and we all have a responsibility to respond to it” US Secretary of State John Kerry said.

He said he had spoken to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and “have agreed that we are engaged in a discussion about how to implement the ceasefire specifically and some immediate possible confidence-building steps to deliver humanitarian assistance”.

Conference co-hosts Britain and Norway promised an extra $1.76bn and $1.17bn respectively by 2020 while Germany also co-host will give $2.57bn by 2018. The US contribution this fiscal year will be $890m.

BEIRUT/MOSCOW/LONDON: Russia said yesterday it suspected Turkey was preparing a military incursion into Syria as a Syrian army source said Aleppo would soon be encircled by government forces with Russian air support.

Turkey in turn accused Moscow of trying to divert attention from its own “crimes” in Syria and said Aleppo was threatened with a “siege of starvation”. It said Turkey had the right to take any measures to protect its security.

The United Nations on Wednesday suspended the first peace talks in two years halting an effort that seemed doomed from the start as the war raged unabated. Washington said yesterday however it was hopeful they would resume by the end of the month and Russia said it expected that no later than February 25.

The UN Security Council will meet today to hear UN envoy Staffan de Mistura explain his decision to suspend Syrian peace talks until the end of the month. The closed-door meeting was requested by Venezuela which chairs the 15-member council for the month of February.

Venezuelan Ambassador Rafael Ramirez told reporters that the meeting would allow the council to “be in contact with Mister de Mistura and to support whatever he needs to have success in discussions.”

Donors convened in London to tackle the refugee crisis created by the conflict. British Prime Minister David Cameron said they raised $11bn for Syrian humanitarian needs over the next four years. Turkey said at the conference up to 70000 refugees from Aleppo were moving towards the border to escape air strikes.

Footage online showed hundreds of people mostly women children and the elderly marching towards Turkey’s Onucpinar border gate carrying carpets blankets and food on their backs.

Four months of Russian air strikes have tipped the momentum of the war Assad’s way. With Moscow’s help and allies including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iranian fighters the Syrian army is regaining areas on key fronts in the west.

Russia’s defence ministry said it had registered “a growing number of signs of hidden preparation of the Turkish Armed Forces for active actions on the territory of Syria”.

Any Turkish incursion would risk direct confrontation between Russia and a NATO member.

“The Russians are trying to hide their crimes in Syria” said a senior official in Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s office.

“They are simply diverting attention from their attacks on civilians as a country already invading Syria. Turkey has all the rights to take any measures to protect its own security.”

In London Davutoglu said the “humanitarian logistic corridor” between Turkey and Aleppo was “under the invasion of these foreign fighters and regime forces (with) the support of Russian warplanes”.

“What they want to do in Aleppo today is exactly what they did in Madaya before a siege of starvation” he added.

Davutoglu pledged that whatever the cost Turkey’s door would remain open to all Syrians. It has already taken in more than 2.5 million.

Relations between Russia and Turkey have deteriorated badly since Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border in November.

Aleppo just 50km south of the Turkish border is a major strategic prize in the war and is currently divided into areas of government and opposition control. Many of the rebels fighting in and around the city have close ties to Turkey.

This week three days of intensive Russian bombing helped the army and allied fighters to sever a major supply line to the northwest of the city in the process reaching two Shi’ite towns loyal to the government for the first time in 3-1/2 years.

The army source said operations to fully encircle Aleppo from the west would be launched soon.

A senior non-Syrian security source close to Damascus said Iranian fighters had played a crucial role.

“Qassem Soleimani is there in the same area” said the source referring to the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ elite Quds force responsible for overseas operations.

Residents thanked Assad Iran and Hezbollah in celebratory scenes from the Shia towns of Nubul and Al Zahraa broadcast by Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV. The powerful Kurdish YPG militia which controls wide areas of northern Syria meanwhile added to the pressure on insurgents capturing two villages near Nubul and Al Zahraa the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

The Syrian Kurds have consistently denied opposition claims that they cooperate with Damascus.

All diplomatic efforts towards ending the conflict have failed. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the latest steps in peace talks were undermined by increased aerial bombing. UN envoy Staffan de Mistura announced a three-week pause.

“I think the special envoy decided to suspend the talks because the organisation did not want to be associated with the Russian escalation in Syria which risks undermining the talks completely” a UN official said.

Mohammad Javad Zarif foreign minister of Iran called in London for the talks to resume and for an immediate ceasefire. But he said later that should not mean stopping military operations against “recognised terrorist organisations” naming the Nusra Front and Islamic State.