Four journalists from China, Canada, Bulgaria and Russia were wounded along the Syria-Turkey border as a result of heavy artillery fire, Russian news agency RIA Novosti quoted Moscow’s defence ministry as saying on Tuesday.
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Meanwhile, the president promised “full amnesty” to rebels who gave up their arms, amid reports from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor group that Syrian warplanes are dropping leaflets on rebel-held areas, urging the rebels to lay down their arms and embark on a reconciliation with the government.
Lavrov said that they “are content with the humanitarian advances in Syria, including the unblocking of new settlements, delivery of supplies and foodstuffs to those in need”.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called March 1 for the closure of Syria’s border with Turkey to cut off outside supplies to “terrorists”, including through humanitarian convoys.
“Over the past three days, the Russian Defense Ministry has relocated three additional modern unmanned aerial vehicle complexes to the Hmeymim airbase, two radars to detect small targets, allowing to record the use of artillery systems by terrorists”, the ministry said in a statement.
Fadi Ahmad, spokesman for the First Coastal Division, a Free Syrian Army group, said government forces had brought in reinforcements and that fighting was as intense as anything preceding the cessation of hostilities.
Just across the street from his house, dozens lined up in front of a Russian military truck to receive food aid including canned meat, beans and other staples.
“Intra-Syrian peace talks will resume in the afternoon of 9 March”, de Mistura’s office said in a statement.
“We have seen a notable reduction in violence in Syria, and certainly there has been a reduction, there is no doubt about it”, Kirby said.
The Russians blamed the shelling on the Islamic State group and the Nusra Front, al-Qaida’s Syrian branch.
Reporters were walking across the village and talking to locals when the first shell struck a hillside a few hundred meters away.
Daesh and al-Qaeda’s Syria affiliate, al-Nusra Front, along with other unspecified groups designated terrorist organizations by the UN Security Council, were not included in the agreement. No casualties were reported.
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The cease-fire is meant to pave the way for the resumption of peace talks to end the conflict, which has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced half the country’s population.
