News / Middle East

Russia: Friends of Syria Meeting 'Encouraged Extremists'

Boys are pictured through a broken windshield as they stand on a street in Aleppo, Feb. 28, 2013.
Boys are pictured through a broken windshield as they stand on a street in Aleppo, Feb. 28, 2013.
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VOA News
Russia says the decisions made this week at a Friends of Syria meeting, during which the United States pledged new help for the Syrian opposition, will not help end the nearly two-year-long crisis.

In a statement Friday, Russia's foreign ministry said the decisions announced at the meeting in Rome would "directly encourage extremists" to seek power in Syria.

On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced $60 million in immediate aid to the Syrian opposition, including food, medical supplies and direct non-lethal aid to some of its military forces. Kerry heads to Turkey Friday for talks on how best to further aid rebel efforts.

Meanwhile, opposition groups are reporting fresh violence across Syria. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights tells VOA the bodies of 10 men were found dumped near a farm outside the the capital, Damascus. It says one man was decapitated and others were shot in the head. Their identities are not known.

The group also says fights broke out Friday in several contested areas of Aleppo, Reef Dimashq and Hama provinces. None of the reports could be confirmed.

On Thursday, the opposition accused President Bashar al-Assad's forces of executing 72 people near Aleppo. The Syrian National Coalition said the burned bodies were discovered following a government raid three days earlier on Malkiyeh village, south of Aleppo.

An estimated 70,000 people have been killed in the 23-month-long conflict.

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by: Tran Thanh Tuu from: Hanoi
March 03, 2013 3:12 AM
@ Plain Mirror Intl from: Plain Planet- Africa
You probably just wake up from the dustbin, the toilet so you do not know reality. You guy are Chinese and Russian minded guy, no doubt, you are from if not Russian government, you must be a Chinese. Down with the Chinese plunderer on the lands of other nations, down with the Russian, power-sucker, murderer. Love you Western democratic, peace-loving countries on earth. 1000% Support Hong Kim Ha's comments


by: david lulasa from: tambua,gimarakwa,hamisi,v
March 02, 2013 4:53 AM
how would the extremists even have a chance to live if at all russia worked for a better world with the west and everyone else..russia should stop behaving as if it already has maximum number of friends and thus needs no more friends if inparticular its the free syrians forces.

lulasa


by: Hong Kim Ha from: Phnom Penh
March 01, 2013 8:07 AM
Russian jealous of Friends countries of Syria now, the Russian dictator regime called World loving peace leaders meeting is encouraged extremists but in fact, the Russians kill innocent Syrian people everyday by supplying deadly weapons to Assad murderer regime. Down with the Russian, cheater.

In Response

by: Plain Mirror Intl from: Plain Planet- Africa
March 01, 2013 1:43 PM
Hong Kim Ha, your comment sounds more like your name. A scalar quantity, simply dimensionless. If you can't learn from what is happening in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia recently, then you are living in Jupita and not here on earth. Call rebels and terrorists innocent and heaven will condemn you even more than satan. Long Live Vlademir Putin! Long live Russia! and Long live Great China!

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