Syrian regime forces will unilaterally cease fire in the de-escalation zone in Syria's Idlib region Saturday morning, Russia's defense ministry was quoted by TASS news agency as saying on Friday.
The ministry also urged armed militant groups in the region to join the ceasefire, according to Interfax news agency. Russia has been the Syrian government's most powerful supporter in its eight-year-long war with rebels and militants.
The Assad regime and its ally Russia have stepped up an offensive against the last big stronghold of Syrian rebels, mounting more air raids and deploying ground reinforcements including Iranian-backed militias, army defectors and residents said Friday.
Moving deeper into territory along the Turkish border, the advance took the town of Tamaneh after earlier capturing Khwain, Zarzoor and Tamanah farms, the defectors and residents said.
The offensive has been reinforced by elite army units and Iranian-backed militias, they said.
"There are daily reinforcements coming from the Iranian militias, elite Republican Guards units and Fourth Armored Division," Colonel Mustafa Bakour, a commander in Jaish al-Izza rebel group, told Reuters.
Jets flying at high altitude dropped bombs on the outskirts of Idlib city, the heavily-populated provincial capital. The aircraft were believed to be Russian, according to activists who track the warplanes' activities.
Opposition sources say hundreds of troops from the country's elite Republican Guards, which is led by Bashar Assad's brother Maher Assad, have been deployed on the frontlines of southern Idlib province.
The rapid progress of the last few weeks has been attributed to the new lineup of Russian backed-forces, an army defector and two senior opposition sources conceded.
"The Russians have now moved to depending on the Iranians and elite army formations in this campaign," Bakour added, saying this was a move away from reliance on the so-called Tiger forces who previously provided most of the army's ground troops.
Speaking in Oslo, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Russia had assured Turkey its observation posts in northwest Syria would not be attacked.
"Russia gave assurances to us that the regime would not attack our posts. We have no plan to withdraw military personnel from those posts," Cavusoglu said, adding continued attacks by Syrian forces in Idlib may drive more Syrian refugees to Europe.
Since capturing the strategic town of Khan Sheikhoun nearly 10 days ago, Russian and Syrian jets were now escalating strikes on the city of Maraat al-Numan that lies further north.
Eight years of war in Syria have killed 560,000 people and driven half the pre-war population of 22 million from their homes, including more than 6 million as refugees to neighbouring countries.
With Reuters
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