US-trained militants planned to carry out terrorist attacks in Palmyra – Russian MoD
RT.com
1 Sep, 2018
US specialists were training militants in Syria who were set to carry out a terrorist attacks in Palmyra, the Russian Defense Ministry has said. It received the information from fighters captured by the Syrian Army.
The captured militants said that they were from the Lions of the East Army group, which is affiliated with the Free Syrian Army, according to the ministry. Some 500 fighters were based at the militants’ camp, which was located near the US-led international coalition’s Al-Tanf military base.
The militants were to carry out “a series of terrorist attacks in Palmyra area” and ensure the passage of around 300 fighters to capture the city within the next week, the ministry said. One of the captured militants said that they were trained by US instructors, and that the group was receiving weapons and ammunition from the US base.
Al-Tanf base is close to the Rukban refugee camp, which contains over 60,000 women and children from the cities of Raqqa and Der ez-Zor.
In late July, the Russian Defense Ministry also warned about chemical-weapons provocations planned by militants in Idlib province, northwestern Syria. It said that an attack would be used as a pretext for airstrikes on Syrian targets by the US, UK and France.
The Defense Ministry added that USS ‘The Sullivans,’ an Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided missile destroyer, had already been deployed to the Persian Gulf for the operation.
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