Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — The administration of President Barack Obama said Tuesday that Russia was
preparing to deliver attack helicopters to the regime of Syrian President
Bashar Assad.

Officials said the helicopters included Mi-24s, used in
operations against Sunni rebels and civilians.

“We are concerned about the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on the way from Russia to Syria,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

This marked the first report of a Russian shipment of offensive
platforms to Assad. For the last year, the Kremlin, which acknowledged the transfer of air and coastal defense systems, asserted that Russia was not supplying equipment that could be used against Syrian civilians.

In remarks on June 12, Ms. Clinton did not provide details of the
helicopter delivery. The secretary did not identify the platform or say how many helicopters were being delivered.

“This will escalate the conflict quite dramatically,” Ms. Clinton said.

“We are seeing the Syrian government using helicopters to fire on their
own people from the air,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
“So, our question remains: How can the Russians conscience their continued
military sales to Syria?”

Officials said Assad was expected to use attack helicopters as part of
an imminent offensive against Sunni rebels in northern Syria in what could
trigger military intervention by neighboring Turkey. They said Syrian
military and security forces were deploying outside Aleppo, the largest city
in Syria and regarded as the nation’s business capital.

“There seems to be a massing of Syrian forces around Aleppo that we’ve
gotten information about over the last 24-48 hours,” Ms. Clinton said. “That
could very well be a redline for the Turks in terms of their strategic and
national interests. So we’re watching this very carefully.”

The Defense Department confirmed the U.S. report of an imminent Russian
helicopter shipment to Damascus. Officials said Washington was monitoring
the Syrian use of Mi-24s and other Russian combat platforms.

“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,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said. “It’s really about what
they’re doing with what they’ve got in their hands.”

Congress has expressed concern over Russian arms deliveries to Syria. A
leading Senate member said the administration must impose sanctions on
Russia’s state-owned arms export agency Rosoboronexport, which signed a
contract to supply 12 Mi-17 utility helicopters to the U.S. Army.

“I remain deeply troubled that the [Defense Department] would knowingly
do business with a firm that has enabled mass atrocities in Syria,” Sen.
John Cornyn, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote in a
letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. “Such actions by Rosoboronexport
warrant the renewal of U.S. sanctions against it, not a billion-dollar
contract.”

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