MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS/. An armed opposition unit in Syria has been reported to have used heavy weapons, namely a multiple launch rocket system, the Russian center for reconciliation of the warring parties in Syria said in a regular bulleting posted on the official website of the Russian Defense Ministry on Friday.
According to the document, five ceasefire violations were registered in the past day. "One episode of the use of heavy weapons was reported. Gunmen of the Liva Sultan Murad armed group calling itself opposition opened fire from multiple launch rocket systems at positions of Kurdish self-defense units in Aleppo’s Sheikh Maksoud neighborhood," the document says.
Other episodes of ceasefire violation involved the use of mortars and firearms. Thus, Jaish al-Islam units reportedly opened mortar fire at government troops’ positions in the vicinity of the settlements of Hteitet al-Jarash and Zibdin in the province of Damascus, according to the bulletin.
"Over the past day, the Russian reconciliation center received 26 requests from local residents for assistance in the search for their missing or abducted relatives," the bulletin says.
Russian and US Presidents, Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama, adopted a statement on February 22 on a ceasefire in Syria from February 27. Both countries undertook to influence the Syrian political forces close to them to achieve truce in Syria. The truce regime is not applicable to the groupings recognized by the United Nations as terrorist organizations, such as the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra (both outlawed in Russia).
In the follow-up of the joint statement by the Russian and U.S. leaders, a special center for reconciliation of the warring parties was set up at Russia’s Hmeimim airbase in Syria’s Latakia.
The Center aims to assist armed groups in Syria in concluding ceasefire agreements, maintain the truce regime, control its observance and organize the delivery of humanitarian cargoes to civilians.