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Militants Shell Settlements in Syria's Idlib, Russian Military Says

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Hayat Tahrir al-Sham* terrorist group has attacked several settlements in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib, Rear Admiral Alexander Shcherbitsky, the head of the Russian Defence Ministry's centre for Syrian reconciliation, said at a briefing.
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"We have registered one attack on the settlement of Maaret Moukhos, one shelling of Dadikh in the Idlib province from the side of the positions of the Jabhat al-Nusra* terrorist organization", Shcherbitsky said.

According to the head of the reconciliation centre, no shelling by militants controlled by Turkey has been registered over the past 24 hours.

On 5 March, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, agreed on a ceasefire in Idlib, which started at midnight. The sides also agreed to create a security corridor six kilometres (3.7 miles) north and south of the M4 highway in Syria, which connects the provinces of Latakia and Aleppo. In addition, Moscow and Ankara agreed to jointly patrol the M4 highway.

Militants remain in control of a small pocket of the Idlib province in northwest Syria.

*Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra) is a terrorist organization banned in Russia and many other countries.

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