MOSCOW (Sputnik) – More than 16,000 people were killed by Syrian militants from February to September 2016, the Russian Permanent Mission to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva said on Saturday in a statement.
“Russia guaranteed the implementation of the CoH [cessation of hostilities] by the Syrian government. The US on the other hand were not capable to insure the implementation of the CoH by the armed groups. From February to September the opposition groups that are supposed to be under the US control committed 2,031 violations of the CoH, which claimed the lives of 3,532 military personnel and 12,800 civilians,” the statement said.
Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, with government forces fighting the Syrian opposition groups striving to overthrow President Bashar Assad. In parallel, Damascus has to counter numerous extremist groups, in particular, Daesh, outlawed in Russia.