Russia affirms Turkey’s shelling of Syrian territories, requests clarification from USA

Moscow – Russian Defense Ministry confirmed Sunday that armed terrorist groups launched an attack from the Turkish territories against Tal Abyad city in the north countryside of Raqqa province, SANA reported.

Lieutenant-General Sergey Kuralenko, the head of Russia’s center for monitoring cessation of fighting actions based in Hmeimim said in a statement that the center has received information indicated gunmen’s attack on Tal Abyad city was accompanied with heavy artillery shelling from the Turkish side, Russia Today reported

Kuralenko affirmed that this information was confirmed through many channels which emphasized that a group of 100 terrorists infiltrated across the Syrian borders from the Turkish side.

 Kuralenko stressed that “this information was verified through multiple channels,” adding that “Russia has requested clarification from the US-run counterpart center based in Amman, since Turkey is a member of the US-led coalition for fighting ISIS”.

Later on Sunday, Kuralenko said that nine cases of violating the agreement of the cessation of hostilities were monitored in Syria during the past 24 hours, one of them was shelling al-Kabaneh town in Lattakia countryside by the terrorist groups.

The cessation of fighting actions has started in implementation of the Russian-US agreement and was adopted by the UN Security Council in accordance with Resolution No 2268.

Turkish regime-linked terrorist groups in the northern countryside of Aleppo targeted Nobbol town with rocket shells last night according to local sources.

The Russian defense ministry said in a statement on Sunday that the Syrian Army did not respond to the mortar shells which were fired by terrorist organizations in Joubar and Eastern Ghouta on residential neighborhoods in Damascus on Saturday.

This came in response to a request from the Russian center for the coordination of monitoring the cessation of hostilities, according to the ministry.

The statement pointed out that the center for monitoring the cessation of hostilities in Hmeimim received from the United States a list that includes 69 groups which stated their agreement to the conditions of cessation of hostilities in Syria.