MOSCOW, March 1. /TASS/. Four journalists have been wounded in shelling near the Syrian-Turkish border, chief of Russia’s Center for Ceasefire in Syria, Lieutenant-General Sergey Kuralenko said on Tuesday.
"A group of foreign and Russian journalists came under heavy artillery fire in the settlement of Kinsiba in a period from 12:04 to 12:10 on March 1, 2016. Fire was opened from the settlement of Bdama and the Syrian-Turkish border. Eight shots from large-caliber artillery were made. Shells exploded some 150-450 meters away from the journalists. As a result, four journalists [from China, Canada, Bulgaria and Russia] were wounded," Kuralenko said, adding that these data had been referred to the US Reconciliation Center in Jordan’s Amman.
Syria ceasefire
The ceasefire in Syria hammered out by Moscow and Washington last week came into force at midnight local time on February 27. An hour before the ceasefire became effective the UN Security Council adopted a resolution to support the cessation of hostilities. The document drafted by Russia and the United States was supported by all 15 member-states of the UNSC.
UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said 97 armed groups agreed to ceasefire. The ceasefire is to be applied to all parties to the Syrian conflict but for Daesh (the Arabic acronym for Islamic State) and Jabhat an-Nusra (both are banned in Russia) "or other terrorist organizations designated by the UN Security Council." Airstrikes on them will be continued.
In the follow-up of the joint statement by the Russian and US leaders issued on February 22, a special Center for Reconciliation of the Warring Sides was set up at Russia’s Hmeimim airbase in Syria’s Latakia. Currently, 61 Russian officers are working at the Center.
The Center aims to assist armed groupings in Syria in concluding ceasefire agreements, maintain the truce regime, control its observance and organize the delivery of humanitarian cargoes to civilians.