MOSCOW, December 15 /TASS/. Actions by the Syrian "moderate opposition" cause daily civilian casualties throughout the country, General Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s First Deputy Defense Minister and the Chief of Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, said on Thursday.

"Operations carried out by the ‘moderate opposition’ cause death among civilians and destroy the infrastructure every day. Schools and hospitals are in its crosshairs. The terrorists are using local civilians as human shields," Gerasimov stated at a briefing of foreign military attaches accredited in Russia on Thursday.

He said that the militants had shot at a Russian field hospital in violation of all norms of international humanitarian law on December 5. Two nurses were killed and a doctor was seriously wounded.

"We assume that joint efforts is the only way to achieve some tangible results in restoring security and counteracting international terrorism and other modern challenges and threats," Gerasimov emphasized.