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Middle East and North Africa

Syria govt, opposition must unite efforts to expel terrorists: ministry

Extremists connected with Al Qaeda continue holding there about 200 civilians

Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, July 23 (Itar-Tass) - The Syrian government and the opposition must join efforts to defeat terrorist groups and expel them from the country, sources from the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday commenting on a sharp aggravation of the situation in the eastern section of the Syrian-Turkish border - the region populated mostly by Kurds.

Extremists connected with Al Qaeda continue holding there about 200 civilians, mainly children, women and elderly people, using them as “human shield”.

“We see it as another bloody provocation aimed at further aggravating inter-community relations, ruining the country and creating on its territory a stronghold of international terrorism,” diplomats stressed.

“Moscow resolutely condemns atrocities of ‘terrorist International’ in the northeast of the country, extremists’ outrage and abuse against the peaceful Kurd population, which is in no way involved in a military-political conflict that continues in Syria,” they stressed.

“The events in the northeast of the country once again confirm the topicality of the appeal to all Syrian parties - both the government and the opposition - to unite efforts to defeat and expel terrorist groups from the country,” they stressed.

The Foreign Ministry is confident that this task must be among the main items on the agenda of a constructive intra-Syrian dialogue within the framework of an international conference on Syria initiated by Russia and the United States.

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