Nest of terrorists in Idlib, Syria should be uprooted – Lavrov

The Russian airbase Khmeimim in Syria has been under fire from the terrorist group Jabhat al-Nusra in Idlib recently, and the “nest of terrorists must be uprooted,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday.

He made the statement at a news conference with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, in Moscow.

Under the new name Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the terrorist group “not only controls the situation there, but also shells positions of the Syrian Army and settlements,” Lavrov said.

The head of the Russian Defence Ministry’s Center for Syrian Reconciliation, Maj. Gen. Viktor Kupchishin, said on Tuesday that militants violated a ceasefire in the Syrian provinces of Aleppo, Idlib and Latakia over a period of 24 hours.