The Guardian
The US state department has acknowledged that Russian helicopters it
claimed had been sent recently to the Syrian regime were, in fact,
refurbished ones already owned by Damascus.
Secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, claimed on Tuesday that "the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on the way from Russia to Syria".
The
state department admitted details had been omitted from Clinton's
speech in which she accused Russia of escalating the violent situation
in Syria. But spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said: "Whether they are new or
they are refurbished, the concern remains that they will be used for
the exact same purpose that the current helicopters in Syria are being
used, and that is to kill civilians.
"These are helicopters that have been out of the fight for some six
months or longer. They are freshly refurbished. The question is simply
what one expects them to be used for when one sees what the current
fleet is doing. Every helicopter that is flying and working is attacking
a new civilian location so the concern is when you add three more
freshly refurbished helicopters to the fight, that is three more that
can be used to kill civilians."
Clinton's accusation prompted a
stern Russian denial and countercharges of hypocrisy against the US for
selling military equipment, including jet engines and patrol boats, to
Bahrain despite civil strife in the Arab state.
