The Russian military says Washington is flouting a UN resolution on Syria by failing to prevent the militants it controls from launching daily raids on the Syrian army troops in Eastern Ghouta and shelling the capital Damascus.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation remarks on Monday came apparently in response to a US allegation made a day earlier that Russian warplanes purportedly had flown bombing missions over the militant-held enclave in defiance of a UN ceasefire.
“Washington does nothing to tame militants under its control in Eastern Ghouta,” the ministry further said in a statement, adding that Washington’s incompetence in controlling the Ghouta-based militants has led to the killing of civilians in the flashpoint region.
The ministry also strongly rejected the US accusation that Moscow was ignoring the UN resolution on a ceasefire in the Arab country.
Earlier in the day, the first UN aid convoy, made up of 46 truckloads of health, food and nutrition supplies, began to cross into Eastern Ghouta, bringing the much-needed relief to the flashpoint enclave as the government troops secured a humanitarian corridor for trapped civilians to leave the militant-held area near the capital city of Damascus.
Eastern Ghouta, a besieged area on the outskirts of Damascus, which is home to some 400,000 people, has witnessed deadly violence over the past few weeks, with Takfiri terrorists launching mortar attacks on the Syrian capital in the face of an imminent humiliating defeat, killing around 20 civilians in two weeks.
The Syrian army is making steady advances in the enclave, but it is facing a hostile West which is threatening airstrikes to stop the push. President Bashar al-Assad vowed on Sunday that Syrian forces would continue the latest campaign until the whole area is retaken.
Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups that are wreaking havoc in the country.