Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu says Moscow is sending a top general and experts to Geneva at request of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to discuss the crisis surrounding the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier this week said that recent U.S.-Russia discussions should encourage moderate Syrian opposition groups to leave areas occupied by al-Qaida's branch in Syria, thus helping to implement a truce there. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu says Russia and the Syrian government will open humanitarian corridors and offer a way-out for opposition fighters wanting to lay down their arms. Syrian government forces and allied troops have tightened the noose on the main rebel enclave in the city of Aleppo, urging fighters there to surrender. Shoigu said in televised comments Thursday that President Vladimir Putin has a "large-scale humanitarian operation" that will be launched outside Aleppo to "help civilians who were taken hostage by terrorists as well as fighters who wanted to lay down the arms."