Yesterday, the leaders of the US, the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Canada adopted a joint statement on the situation in the Syrian city of Aleppo. The document warns that sanctions could be imposed against supporters of the Syrian President Bashar Assad, including Russia and Iran. Meanwhile, Assad expressed the opinion that the battle for Aleppo will be the decisive moment of the Syrian war, which will change its course: "The liberation of Aleppo would deal a blow to a conspiracy between the regional forces and the West against Syria."
Now, the Syrian army and the National Defence Forces people’s militias are exterminating the manpower of terrorist groups such as ISIS, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (the former Jabhat al-Nusra) and similar organisations in the Aleppo province, clearing the territory of extremists and terrorists. However, the latter are resisting and trying to buy time with the help of sabotage and murder, the use of a human shield consisting of peaceful civilians, indiscriminate shelling and purposeful destruction of civilian infrastructure.
On December 5, nine mines fired by militants exploded in the territory of the Russian mobile military hospital in Aleppo. As a result of a direct hit on the admission unit, a female Russian medical officer died. Two medical workers were gravely wounded, with one of them, a woman, later passing away. At least three local residents died and more than 44 were wounded.
The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, recalled that Russian military medics were sent to Aleppo in late November to provide medical assistance to the conflict-affected local population, as Syrian citizens had for a long time been denied access to high-quality medicine.
According to Zakharova, more than half of Aleppo has been liberated from terrorists and the Syrian government continues to make consistent efforts, in cooperation with various political forces, to achieve national reconciliation. "It managed to reach a settlement in Al-Tall by creating a mixed council involving former members of illegal armed groups, who had agreed to lay down arms. The government is working to achieve local pacifications in other areas. 700 former members of various illegal armed groups from the towns of Al-Taiba, Al-Kiswah, and Al-Meklaibia in Western Ghouta have been granted amnesty. In the course of one day, nearly 3000 militants surrendered their arms and joined the ceasefire in Syria. Note that the agreement with the militants has been reached following very complicated talks. Militants, together with their families, left Khan ash Shaykh in the suburb of Damascus for the Idlib province".
