"The crew regularly sees the bodies of civilians brutally murdered by terrorists in the waters around northern Syria, the majority of whom are women and children. They take them out of the water and bring them to Tartus for burial, in accordance with Islamic traditions," a source in the navy said.
The serviceman said that the Syrian authorities have asked Russian sailors on several occasions to retrieve the bodies of civilians murdered by terrorists.
"The last time, the ship collected more than ten dead bodies. They were around 200 nautical miles north of Tartus. There weren't bullet wounds on the bodies, they had been killed by cold weapons," he said.
Large parts of northern Syria are under the control of extremist Islamist groups, including the al-Nusra Front, a militant group linked to al-Qaeda that renamed itself Jabhat Fatah al-Sham in July.
"In the time that was supposed to be used to implement the agreements, Nusra regrouped, replenished its supplies, including weapons, changed its disposition," she explained.
The spokeswoman explained that the US-Russia peace agreement on Syria reached in September was supposed to ensure that none of the conflicting sides in Syria use humanitarian corridors for weapons supplies.
According to Zakharova, while the Syrian government forces fulfilled the agreements, "on the other side nobody moved a finger" to follow through with the deal.
