‘Moderate’ opposition militants have refused to leave the city of Aleppo during the forthcoming humanitarian pause, announced by the Russian Defense Ministry on November 4.
The day before, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that a humanitarian pause will be announced in Aleppo from 9:00 am to 19:00 pm on November 4 by order of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Civilians and militants will have another chance to leave the city. However, terrorists, controlling the eastern quarters of Aleppo, have already said that they are not going to leave the city, the Reuters news agency reported.
According to the piece, militants are not going consider the Russian offer. In particular, the news agency quoted the words of a representative of one of the many armed groups, which have occupied the eastern part of Aleppo, Zakaria Malahifji of the Fastaqim group. The group is an ally for the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (previously known as the Al-Nusra Front) and Ahrar al-Sham (also known as the Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyya) terrorist groups. According to Malahifji, militants are going ‘defend the city.’
“This is completely out of the question. We will not give up the city of Aleppo to the Russians and we won’t surrender,” Malahifji told Reuters.
Militants, who call themselves ‘opposition’, claim that they intend to break through the ‘ring’, in which their ‘brothers’ found themselves in Aleppo.
Meanwhile, it was reported that experts of the Russian Defense Ministry have arrived in Aleppo in order to take samples of chemical weapons (ammunition with toxic substances).
“On October 30, as a result of the usage of chemical weapons in the south-west of Aleppo, two Syrian troops were killed and 37 civilians got poisoning of varying severity. Experts of the Russian Defense Ministry are equipped with all necessary technical means for carrying out a rapid analysis, taking and delivery of the samples to the Russian Federation. The analysis of toxic chemicals and its degradation products, found in Aleppo, will be carried out in a laboratory of the chemical-analytical control of the Scientific Center of the Russian Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops, accredited by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW),” spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, Major General Igor Konashenkov, said.
Earlier, it was reported that militants shelled residential areas and positions of the Syrian Army with bombs with chlorine and other chemical agents.
