Syria Militant Attacks Intensify Despite US-Russia Truce Deal - Defense Ministry

Sputnik News

17:52 18.09.2016

Militant attacks against Syrian government troops are on the rise, despite the new Russia-US brokered ceasefire, which only the Syrian government is strictly adhering to, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Sunday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The situation is especially grave in Aleppo, where militants have used the lull in fighting to relocate military equipment and combatants, he added, noting that movements of armored vehicles and cars have been recorded in the besieged eastern Aleppo and in the city's suburbs.

"Only Syrian government forces have adhered to the ceasefire over the past six days since it came into effect. There has not been a single contact regarding the ceasefire with so-called moderate opposition representatives. All our appeals to the United States to provide us with moderate opposition contacts or to influence them have not yielded any results. On the contrary, the number of militant attacks against Syrian army positions and against residential areas is increasing," Konashenkov said.

These developments confirm Russia's warnings about terrorists regrouping to prepare for another large-scale offensive, Konashenkov stressed, accusing the United States of failing to separate terrorists from moderate opposition and to exert influence on the latter.

"Therefore, a week after the ceasefire agreement, the complete absence of any kind of US influence and contacts with the moderate opposition both on the ground in Syria and in the Western capitals is apparent," he said.

Humanitarian access, along with seven days of reduced violence, is a condition of the Syria ceasefire agreement announced last week by US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

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