12 December, 2012 — Voice of Russia

Syria rebels backers ‘accomplices in atrocities’ – Moscow

In a statement read put by diplomatic spokesman Alexander Lukashevich Wednesday, Moscow said the responsibility for the latest atrocities committed by the Syrian rebels must be shared by the foreign powers that arm, fund and train the anti-government insurgents.

On Wednesday morning, reports emerged that rebel gunmen had massacred at least several dozen people in the mostly Alawite Syrian community of Akrab. A week ago, rebel shells killed eight students and a teacher in a village school north of Damascus.

In a related development, the rebels have declared Damascus Airport a ‘war zone’.

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Interfax
December 12, 2012

Supporters of military solution share responsibility for terror attacks in Syria – Moscow

MOSCOW: Moscow condemns the terrorist attack on the Alawite village of Aqrab in central Syria, which killed dozens of civilians, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a commentary.

“We strongly condemn this cruel massacre of innocent people. We present our profound condolences to the victims’ families and brothers in faith and to all Syrians. Moscow has noted many times that the Syrian armed opposition increasingly uses terrorist methods in its confrontation with the government and pointed to the danger and impermissibility of that situation. Alas, some of our partners prefer to ignore these warnings,” Lukashevich said.

The latest tragedy in Syria requires an appropriate reaction of the international community, all the foreign actors. “In our opinion, an unconditional imperative is the immediate shift to the conduct, which would comply with the ideas and formulas endorsed by consensus with the Geneva communique of the Action Group for Syria on June 30, 2012,” he said.

Not only the perpetrators and their organizations are responsible for the barbarian crime in Aqrab, the murder of schoolchildren in the Al-Wafideen camp and other numerous terrorist attacks in Syria, including threats by militants to shoot down civilian planes and their declaration of the Damascus Airport as a combat zone, Lukashevich said.

“We think that this responsibility is shared to a degree by those who directly or indirectly support the focus on military solutions and overthrowing the Syrian government, render financial and logistic aid to militants, supply them with armaments and help recruit and bring foreign mercenaries to the country,” Lukashevich said.

The media said that dozens of civilians died in the terrorist attack on the Alawite village of Aqrab in central Syria. There is no official confirmation of the casualty rate.

In the words of Lukashevich, the attack may trigger a sharp exacerbation of inter-religious tensions in the conflict-ridden country.