HMEYMIM /Syria/, June 4. /TASS/. Units of Kurdish militia have abandoned defenses in Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsood and retreated, a spokesman for the Russian center for reconciliation of opposing sides in Syria said on Saturday.

"In result of intense artillery shelling and incessant attacks of combatants of the Jabhat al-Nusra and Akhrar ash-Sham terrorist groups (banned in Russia) against the Kurdish militia, local volunteers and governmental forces in Aleppo, the units of Kurdish self-defense forces have abandoned the defenses in Sheikh Maqsood and retreated," he said.

Over the past 24 hours, terrorists delivered strikes from multiple rocket launchers, mortars and anti-aircraft guns on the residential areas of Handrat, Sheikh Maqsood, al-Muhafaza, al-Zahraa and al-Nayrab airport in the city of Aleppo. Also, the residential localities of Kinsibba and Nahshebba in the Latakia region and Fua and Kafr Haya in the Idlib region came under shelling.

The ceasefire has been effective in Syria since February 27, 2016. It does not apply to the groups Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra (both outlawed in Russia), and also to other groups declared as terrorist by the UN Security Council. Russia’s aviation grouping has been delivering air strikes against the Islamic State terrorist organization in Syria since September 30, 2015 at the request of Syria’s President Bashar Assad.