Moscow, SANA – The General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation announced on Friday evening that the humanitarian pause in Aleppo has been extended for another 24 hours in response to requests by the UN and other international organizations.

Russian General Staff spokesman Lieutenant General Sergey Rudskoy said that despite the attempts by the so-called “moderate opposition” and its sponsors to obstruct attempts to restore the situation in Aleppo to normal, the humanitarian pause has been extended for 24 hours from 8 AM on Saturday to 7 PM.

Rudskoy said in a statement to the press that terror organizations are exploiting the humanitarian pause, as they acquired shoulder-mounted anti-air weapons, and more than 1,200 militants are preparing to attack eastern Aleppo from the southwestern side, armed with tanks, armored vehicles, and more than 20 4WD vehicles equipped with machineguns, in addition to more than 30 suicide bombers.

He also affirmed that all Russia’s requests to the Americans to convince the so-called “moderate opposition” to stop shelling and to allow locals to leave eastern Aleppo or to leave it themselves are still unanswered, and that while humanitarian passages are open to civilians, but terrorists still target these passages with gunfire and shell them with mortar and rocket shells along with other residential areas in western Aleppo, which claimed the lives of 8 civilians and injured more than 30 in the past 24 hours.

Hazem Sabbagh