You're reading: US worried Russia may be sending Syria helicopters (update)

WASHINGTON - TheUnited Statesis worriedRussiamay be sendingSyriaattack helicopters and views Russian claims that its arms transfers toSyriaare unrelated to the conflict there as "patently untrue," U.S. Secretary of StateHillary Clintonsaid on Tuesday, June 12.

The comments came as thePentagonfound itself on the defensive for doing business with Russian state arms exporterRosoboronexport, given concerns inCongressabout the firm’s role in arming the Syrian regime.

The 15-month-old conflict inSyriahas grown into a full-scale civil war, the U.N. peacekeeping chief said on Tuesday.

Many hundreds of people, including civilians, rebels and members of PresidentBashar al-Assad’sarmyand security forces have been killed since a ceasefire deal brokered two months ago was meant to halt the bloodshed.

"We have confronted the Russians about stopping their continued arms shipments toSyria. They have, from time to time, said that we shouldn’t worry – everything they are shipping is unrelated to their (theSyrian government’s) actions internally," Clinton said, addressing a forum in Washington.

"That’s patently untrue."

Clinton did not offer any details about the source of her information aboutRussia’s possible shipment of attack helicopters toSyria, saying only: "We are concerned about the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on the way fromRussiatoSyria."

She said such a sale "will escalate the conflict quite dramatically."

State Department spokeswomanVictoria Nulandtold reporters that Clinton was concerned about helicopters now en route toSyriaand not about possible past sales of Russian-origin attack helicopters toSyria.

She said that she could not elaborate or speculate on the source of Clinton’s information.

RussiaandChinaare Assad’s principal defenders on the diplomatic front and, as permanent members of the UN Security Council with the power to veto resolutions, have stymied efforts by Western powers to condemn or call for the removal of Assad.

TheUnited Nationssays Assad’s forces have killed more than 10,000 people since the uprising against his family’s four-decade rule ofSyriabroke out in March 2011.

Pentagonspokesman CaptainJohn Kirbysaid he had no knowledge of a new helicopter shipment but acknowledged that Assad’s regime was turning to helicopters to stage attacks.

"We know that the Assad regime is using helicopter gunships against their own people," Kirby said.

Asked whetherRussia’s resupply of military equipment toSyriawas enabling the Syrian armed forces to continue the killings, Kirby said: "To the degree that the Syrian armed forces use that resupply to kill their own people, then yes."

RUSSIAAND THE AFGHAN WAR

TheSyrian government’s use of Russian-made arms has thrown a spotlight on thePentagon’s purchase of Russian helicopters for theAfghan military, which theUnited Statesis building up so that it can take over security as American troops withdraw.

This week, U.S. SenatorJohn Cornyn, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to Defense SecretaryLeon Panettabranding Russian export firmRosoboronexport"an enabler of mass murder inSyria."

"I remain deeply troubled that the (Pentagon) would knowingly do business with a firm that has enabled mass atrocities," Cornyn wrote. "Such actions byRosoboronexportwarrant th e renewal of U.S. sanctions against it, not a billion-dollar (Pentagon) contract."

A Cornyn aide told Reuters the senator put a hold on the nomination ofHeidi Shyuto serve as Assistant Secretary of theArmyfor Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology, as a way to pressure thePentagonover the matter.

But thePentagonsaid dealing withRosoboronexportwas the only legal way to supply the helicopters toAfghanistanand attempted to differentiate between the two conflicts.

"We understand the concerns. We’re not ignoring them," saidPentagonspokesmanGeorge Little. "But I would make the point that, in the case ofAfghanistan, the Mi-17 is about giving them what they need and what they can use effectively to take on their own fights inside their own country."

ThePentagon’s Kirby dismissed concerns that U.S. reliance on ground supply routes throughRussia
hampered its ability to speak out over arms shipments toSyria. But at the same time, he repeatedly stressed the need to blame Assad for the atrocities, as opposed to overly focusing on weapons suppliers.

"The focus really needs to be more on what the Assad regime is doing to its own people than the cabinets and the closets to which they turn to pull stuff out," he said. "It’s really about what they’re doing with what they’ve got in their hands."

In a March letter to Cornyn, Under Secretary of Defense for PolicyJames Milleracknowledged that "Rosoboronexportcontinues to supply weapons and ammunition to the Assad regime and … there is evidence that some of these arms are being used by Syrian forces againstSyria’s civilian population.