MOSCOW, January 23. /TASS/. Positions of Syrian government troops have come under shellings by illegal armed groups 30 times since 9 January 2020, chief of the Russian Center for econciliation of the conflicting sides in Syria Yury Borenkov said on Thursday.
"Since January 9 of the current year, positions of government troops in the Idlib de-escalation zone have been attacked by illegal armed groups 30 times. Over this period, terrorist groups have staged as many as 638 shelling attacks on populated localities. In total, 55 Syrian soldiers and 71 civilians have been killed and 94 soldiers and 149 civilians have been wounded as a result of attacks and shellings since January 9," Borenkov said.
He added that during the day officers of the Russian reconciliation center conducted three humanitarian operations and delivered a total of 2.74 tonnes of food products to the settlements of Jebab in the Daraa governorate, Qantara in the Aleppo governorate, and Hneyz al-Shimaliya in the Raqqa governorate.
The ceasefire in the Idlib de-escalation zone in the north of Syria came into effect on January 12. Government troops stopped combat operations from 2pm local time on January 9.
Four de-escalation zones were established in Syria under the agreement reached by the three Syrian ceasefire guarantor nations, namely Russia, Iran and Turkey, in May 2017. Three of them are now controlled by Damascus while the fourth one located in the Idlib governorate and partially in the neighboring Latakia, Hama and Aleppo governorates, is still outside Damascus’ control, with a larger part of it being seized by Jabhat al-Nusra (a terrorist organization banned in Russia) militants.
The Russian reconciliation center continues to fulfill assigned tasks after the completion of the military campaign in Syria. The center’s officers regularly travel around the country's liberated areas to assess the humanitarian situation. The main efforts of the Russian military are now focused on assistance to the refugees returning to their homes and evacuation of civilians from de-escalation zones.