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New Delhi: Russia has accused the U.S. of working with Islamic State terrorists and other Islamist groups to carry out attacks against Bashar Assad’s government forces in Syria.
Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) chief Sergey Naryshkin claimed that a special role has been assigned to the so-called ‘Free Syrian Army’, which consists of Kurdish and Arab detachments operating in the central and northeast parts of Syria.
According to an SVR report released on Monday, the US military’s Al-Tanf base in southern Syria is coordinating subversive activities, with the actions of terrorist groups being planned by representatives of the Central Command of the US Armed Forces as well as US intelligence officers.
Accusing the US of assigning a special role to the so-called Free Syrian Army, which consists of Kurdish and Arab detachments operating in the central and northeast parts of Syria, the report alleged “Through them, the Americans and their British allies are working with the underground formations of Islamic State [IS, formerly ISIS] that still remain in remote areas of the country,”.
“ISIS was instructed to incite hostilities in the Syrian south-west (the provinces of Suwayda and Deraa), in the central part of the country (Homs) and east of the Euphrates River (Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor). For this, it is planned to form several detachments 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,” Russia Today quoted the statement as saying.
The SVR claims that the US also intends to use terrorists in the region around the capital, Damascus, to conduct tasks such as kidnapping Russian and Iranian servicemen, it said.
In addition to coordinating the actions of Islamist groups, Washington is providing terrorists with weapons, according to the SVR.
The report further alleged that several dozen four-wheel-drive pickup trucks with heavy machine guns, as well as a number of rocket systems such as NLAW ATGMs, TOWs, and Igla MANPADS are set to be handed over to fighters in the near future.
In February, the SVR reported that the US was using Islamist extremists to plan terrorist attacks in Russia and former Soviet republics.
Russia’s foreign spy service had said that it had received intelligence that the US military was grooming Islamist militants to attack Russia. The Russian foreign intelligence service, known by the initials SVR, is headed by an ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin- Sergei Naryshkin. The agency was once part of the Soviet-era KGB.
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