Russia accuses US of forming army of extremists in Syria
As the Arab world continues to rebuild ties with the Syrian government, Washington has been on a scramble to cement its occupation of two thirds of Syria
By
News Desk
– May 10 2023
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FILE – ISIS militant in Syria’s Raqqa city. (Photo Credit: Stringer)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on 10 May accused the US army of recruiting members from extremist armed groups – including ISIS – to form a so-called ‘Free Syria Army’ in the northern city of Raqqa.
“According to our data, the Americans have started to create the so-called Free Syria Army near the Syrian city of Raqqa, engaging local Arab tribes, along with militants from ISIS and other terrorist organizations. The goal is clear: to use these militants against Syria’s legitimate authorities in order to destabilize the situation in the country,” Lavrov noted during a four-way meeting with his counterparts from Syria, Turkiye, and Iran.
“It’s no longer enough for the US to support the self-proclaimed Kurdish regions beyond the Euphrates River and flood the illegal armed units that they have formed with weapons,” the Russian foreign minister highlighted.
Lavrov added that the Russian army is in discussions with the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) on a “model of joint actions” to oppose the new threat, and stressed that “blatant foreign interference in the region’s affairs is unacceptable, particularly when it involves military force.”
In December of last year, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) revealed that US occupation forces started building a new military base at the southern entrance of Raqqa despite having abandoned the city three years earlier.
Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, the Kremlin has accused Washington several times of training and arming ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militants to fight against Russian forces.
In March, the Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergey Naryshkin, stated that the US was planning to “sow chaos” in Syria by training and arming extremist militants.
“[The US army plans] to form several groups of radicals with a total number of about 300 people. After special training, they will be involved in attacks on military facilities in Syria and Iran,” Naryshkin said in an SVR statement released on 20 March.
“Their patrons intend to use some of the terrorists in the capital region, including for the kidnapping of Russian and Iranian servicemen,” he added.
Washington is allegedly giving “a special role in the effort” to the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) – an umbrella coalition of Kurdish and Arab rebels formed in 2011 by army defectors and which is intimately tied to ISIS and Al-Qaeda.
Syrian field sources informed The Cradle in February of the existence of communication channels between the US occupation base in Al-Tanf and ISIS cells that carry out scattered attacks in the Syrian Desert against the SAA and its allied, Iran-backed factions.
The sources also noted a marked shift in both ISIS tactics and the terror group’s access to advanced weapons and modern communication equipment that have been discovered in their hideouts.
The US army and international coalition occupy at least 28 declared military sites in Syria, distributed over three governorates, mainly Hasakah (17 sites), Deir Ezzor (nine locations), and Homs (two areas).
The distribution of Washington’s illegal bases resembles the cordon surrounding the sources of oil and gas located east of the Euphrates River, representing most of Syria’s underground wealth.
On top of this, the US still maintains around 900 troops in Syria who were illegally deployed to the country.
Keywords
Al-Qaeda
CIA
HTS
ISIS
oil theft
Raqqa
Russia
SAA
Sergei Lavrov
Syria
