KHMEIMIM. March 20 (Interfax) - Two children were killed in a terrorist shooting attack on a school bus in northeastern Aleppo on Tuesday, the head of the Russian Center for reconciliation of conflicting parties in Syria Viktor Kupchishin said at a press briefing.
A sniper located in an area in the Leramun district controlled by terrorist forces opened fire targeting the bus, he said. "As a result, a 12-year-old boy was killed, and an 8-year-old girl and a teacher, who was accompanying the children, were severely wounded. The girl later died in hospital," Kupchishin said.
"The provocation was committed by militants in a bid to destabilize the situation in the Idlib de-escalation area and to prompt a collapse of the agreement on the creation of a de-militarizated zone," he said.
Over the past 24 hours, militants have opened fire targeting several populated localities in the Idlib de-escalation area, he said.
Kupchishin also accused the U.S. side of obstructing the evacuation of "those Syrian citizens who are still being forcibly held in the Rukban camp and facing arbitrariness on the part of militants from U.S.-controlled radical armed groups," he said.
"Due to the fact that the camp has no official status, as well as for security reasons, neither governmental nor non-governmental organizations may provide any assistance on a systematic basis to at-Tanf refugees who have found themselves hostages to the situation and who critically need this help," he said.
"The United States is disregarding these circumstances, making various demands in relation to conditions for the evacuation of civilians from the Rukban camp. Meanwhile, they themselves are not providing any humanitarian assistance to people staying there, effectively leaving them at the mercy of militants," Kupchishin said.