MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The fragile peace in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo is exacerbated by the high concentration of terrorists to the west and north of the city, the Russian Defense Ministry's spokesman for ceasefire and humanitarian issues in Geneva said Wednesday.
"The peace that you see in Aleppo is fragile. To the west and the north of the city, we are recording a constant and high concentration of extremists," Col. Alexander Zorin said at a Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency conference.
Syria's civil war between government forces and a wide range of insurgents, including opposition groups and terrorists, such as al-Nusra Front and Daesh, both outlawed in Russia, has raged for some five years and has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. Aleppo, fought over since 2012, was liberated and fully retaken by the government in late December.