"Over the past week, terrorists fired mortars and "hellfires" [improvised cannons] 64 times at western Aleppo. The shelling killed 127 and wounded 254 civilians," Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi said Thursday.

He added that on October 30, shells with toxic agents killed two Syrian servicemen and injured 37 civilians.

A group of Russian experts from the radiation, chemical and biological defense units have arrived in Aleppo to take samples in the area where the chemical weapons were used, Rudskoi added.

"Making use of Russian and Syrian Air Forces' operation moratorium, militant groups commenced active hostilities on October 28 and tried to break through into the eastern part [of Aleppo]," he said.

At the same time, militants in eastern Aleppo attempted to launch their attack in the area of a humanitarian corridor.

"All of militants' attacks were repelled. As a result, the terrorists suffered significant losses, including 21 battle tanks, 10 infantry fighting vehicles, six rocket artillery systems, 14 mortar crews, 80 cars with mounted heavy machineguns, as well as 12 car bombs driven by suicide terrorists", Rudskoi said.

The US-backed Nour al-Din al-Zenki group in Syria does not intent to leave Aleppo, coming as no surprise to Russia, the Russian General Staff said.

"The leadership of the Nour Din al-Zenki terrorist group, which is considered moderate opposition in the West, announced yesterday that troops under its control will not take the opportunity to leave eastern Aleppo and will continue an armed struggle," Rudskoi said.

The chief of the Russian General Staff Main Operational Directorate said the announcement by the group whose members beheaded a child last summer "was not a surprise to us."

Fighting in Aleppo, which is part of a civil war in the crisis-torn Syria, escalated in the past days after militants in the eastern neighborhoods announced an offensive and fired missiles on the government-held western part of the city.

Russia has already introduced the so-called humanitarian pause in October, to ensure the safe evacuation of civilians and unarmed militants from eastern part of the embattled city via eight designated corridors. During the humanitarian pause, al-Nusra Front terrorist group, recently renamed as Jabhat Fatah al Sham, outlawed in Russia, prevented civilians from fleeing the city, attacking them. As the evacuation failed and the humanitarian pause ended, the Syrian government launched an offensive against the militants, Sputnik reported.

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