The US is still using terrorists in Syria, says Russia

The US is still working with Islamic State and other terrorist groups to carry out attacks against government forces in Syria, the head of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergey Naryshkin, has claimed. The US military's Al-Tanf base in southern Syria is coordinating subversive activities, with the actions of terrorist groups being planned by representatives of the Central Command of the US Armed Forces as well as US intelligence officers. The SVR stated that a special role has been assigned to the Free Syrian Army, which consists of Kurdish and Arab detachments operating in the central and northeast parts of Syria. The US also intends to use terrorists in the region around the capital, Damascus, to conduct tasks such as kidnapping Russian and Iranian servicemen. In addition to coordinating the actions of Islamist groups, Washington is providing terrorists with weapons, such as four-wheel-drive pickup trucks with heavy machine guns, as well as a number of rocket systems such as NLAW ATGMs, TOWs, and Igla MANPADS. Washington's actions put it on the same level as Islamic terrorists and IS militants, and are a manifestation of state terrorism. In February, the SVR reported that the US was using Islamist extremists to plan terrorist attacks in Russia and former Soviet republics.