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US airstrikes at Syrian forces help terrorists in Syria — Russian lawmaker

US airstrikes at Syrian government forces may also "threaten the agreements between Russia and US on Syria," Frants Klintsevich said
Frants Klintsevich, first deputy chairman of the Russian Federation Council’s Defense and Security Committee ITAR-TASS/Valery Matytsin
Frants Klintsevich, first deputy chairman of the Russian Federation Council’s Defense and Security Committee
© ITAR-TASS/Valery Matytsin

MOSCOW, September 18. /TASS/. US-led coalition’s airstrikes at Syrian government forces facilitate spreading terrorism in Syria and may threaten the security of the United States, first deputy chairman of the Russian Federation Council’s Defense and Security Committee Frants Klintsevich told journalists on Sunday.

"Believing in their universal power, US is not even able to think about their own security," Klintsevich said. "The airstrike in Syria is an obvious cultivation of IS (Islamic State terrorist organization banned in Russia)," he added.

The lawmaker reminded that the world commemorated "the tragic jubilee of terrible terrorist attacks in US in September 2001" just several days ago. "By trying to set Russia up, US draws the enemy’s fire upon yourself without even realizing it. But in this case, they will have nobody to complain about," he stressed.

US airstrikes at Syrian government forces may also "threaten the agreements between Russia and US on Syria," Klintsevich said. "Anyway, interests of partners - not only Russia but their partners in the European Union as well — are no more than a small coin," he concluded.

According to the Syrian government forces’ command, 62 servicemen were killed and 100 more injured in an airstrike near the city of Deir ez-Zor on September 17. Russian Defense Ministry’s official spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that on Saturday, "from 5pm to 5:50pm near an aerodrome of the Deir ez-Zor city (Syria), the aircraft of ‘anti-IS coalition’ (two F-16 and two A10) delivered four airstrikes at units of Syrian government forces which were surrounded by Islamic State terrorist groupings," Konashenkov noted.