US concerned over reported Russian military buildup in Syria - News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

by News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

U.S. authorities have detected "worrisome preparatory steps" that could signal Russia is readying deployment of heavy military assets • Secretary of State John Kerry tells Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov that the United States is deeply concerned.

 

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry | Photo credit: Reuters

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told his Russian counterpart on Saturday that the United States was deeply concerned about reports that Moscow was moving toward a major military buildup in Syria, widely seen as an effort to bolster Syrian President Bashar Assad.

U.S. authorities have detected "worrisome preparatory steps," including transport of prefabricated housing units for hundreds of people to a Syrian airfield, that could signal that Russia is readying deployment of heavy military assets there, a senior U.S. official told Reuters.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Moscow's exact intentions remained unclear but that Kerry called Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to leave no doubt of the U.S. position.

The State Department pointed to media accounts suggesting an "imminent enhanced Russian military buildup" in Syria.

"The secretary made clear that if such reports were accurate, these actions could further escalate the conflict, lead to greater loss of innocent life, increase refugee flows and risk confrontation with the anti-ISIL coalition operating in Syria," the State Department said, using an acronym for the Islamic State group.

Russia's actions could signal an intensified effort to support Assad, a longtime Russian ally who has seen the area he controls whittled down to a fifth or less of Syria's territory after more than four years of grinding civil war.

Among the latest steps by Russia is the delivery of the temporary housing units and a portable air traffic control station to an airfield near the port city of Latakia, an Assad stronghold, the U.S. official said.

The Russians have also filed military overflight requests with neighboring countries, the U.S. official said.

In addition, Russia has dispatched a military advance team to Syria, The New York Times reported.

The New York Times report also cited unnamed U.S. officials saying that while there was no indication Russia intended to send in significant ground forces, the housing could accommodate as many as 1,000 military advisers and other personnel and enable the airfield to be a supply hub or a launching pad for Russian airstrikes.

But the American official told Reuters: "It is inconclusive exactly what the Russians' intent is. We have not seen the actual deployment of military assets or aircraft or forces."

The official said the conclusions were drawn from a "variety of sources." The Los Angeles Times reported that U.S. intelligence gathered the evidence from satellite reconnaissance photos.

A U.S. security source also told Reuters there were signs of a Russian move to intervene in Syria beyond its already robust military support role, which have included weapons and training.

The source said the United States will be watching to see whether any increased Russian military role will be used strictly to help Assad or to push back Islamic State, which has seized swathes of Syria and neighboring Iraq and is the target of a U.S.-led coalition bombing campaign.

The U.S. official declined to say how Lavrov responded to Kerry's concerns. The State Department said the two agreed that discussions on the Syrian conflict would continue this month in New York, where the U.N. General Assembly meets.

Lavrov said last month the United States should cooperate with Assad to fight Islamic State militants.

The United States and Russia have long been at loggerheads over Syria. Russia has backed Assad. The United States advocates a political transition to end his rule.

Meanwhile, anti-government violence erupted Saturday in a southern Syrian province that had largely stayed on the sidelines of the country's civil war. The violence in Sweida province, a stronghold of the Druze minority sect, followed the killing of a prominent cleric in rare explosions Friday that claimed the lives of at least 25 others, activists and pro-government media said. Rioters holding the government responsible for the cleric's death destroyed the statue of late Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad and besieged security offices, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and other activist groups said.

The cleric killed Friday, Sheikh Wahid Balous, was a prominent critic of Assad and had called on youth in Sweida province to refuse to serve in the military. He was also a critic of the Islamic State.

The Observatory said the death toll rose Saturday to 37, including six security personnel killed in clashes with rioters. The city had witnessed large rallies in the days before the explosions against the failure of the government to provide basic services. Activists reported that there was no Internet service for the past few days.

Syria's official news agency and other activist groups put the death toll from the blasts at 26. There was no immediate claim of responsibly for the bombings.

In neighboring Lebanon, which also has a sizeable Druze population, the sect's political leader Walid Jumblatt said Balous's death was a "painful strike" to the community.

"It is time for the honorable citizens [of Sweida] to rise up in the face of the Syrian regime that wants repression and to spread sedition," he told the anti-government Syrian Orient TV.

News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=28107

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.