Report: Children used as human shields
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Opposition says 2 people are dead after attack from land and sky in Homs province
- NEW: Russian company says it will fulfill contract with Syria, but arms aren’t “attack weapons”
- The U.S. secretary of state accuses Russia of sending attack helicopters to Syria
- The Syrian regime slams the United States, accusing it of supporting terrorists
(CNN) — Regime forces pummeled Syrian cities from both the ground and sky Wednesday, opposition activists said, a day after the United States accused Russia of sending attack helicopters to Syria.
The Homs province city of Rastan came under fresh attack from planes and rocket-propelled grenades, the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria said. At least two people were killed in Homs province Wednesday, the group said.
On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed concern “about the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on the way from Russia to Syria, which will escalate the conflict quite dramatically.”
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the United States has been “pushing the Russians for months to break their military ties with the Syrian regime, and they haven’t done it. And instead they keep reassuring all of us that what they are sending militarily to Syria can’t be used against civilians. And now what are we seeing? We are seeing the Syrian government using helicopters to fire on their own people from the air.”
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But the Russian state-controlled arms trader Rosoboronexport said it will fulfill its arms contract with Syria, the state-owned RIA Novosti news agency reported.
“No one can ever accuse Russia of violating the rules of armaments trade set by the international community,” Rosoboronexport Deputy CEO Igor Sevastyanov said when asked about Russia’s supply of mobile gun and missile air defense systems to Syria, according to RIA Novosti.
Sevastyanov added, “The contract was signed long ago, and we supply armaments that are self-defense rather than attack weapons.”
The situation in Syria has already devolved into a civil war, U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said Tuesday.
“Yes, I think we can say that,” Ladsous told two news agencies. “Clearly what is happening is that the government of Syria lost some large chunks of territory, several cities to the opposition, and wants to retake control.”
His spokesman, Kieran Dwyer, confirmed the remarks to CNN, but said labeling the conflict is not what’s important.
“Whether we call it all-out civil war, whether we call it partial civil war, civil war in some places, the point is that it’s hugely escalated, that it’s across nearly all parts of the country and that the civilians, ordinary Syrian people, are the ones that are suffering,” Dwyer said.
Civilians bearing the brunt of the crisis include young children who are tortured or used as human shields by the Syrian regime, according to a report released by the United Nations this week.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has long blamed violence in the country on “armed terrorist groups.”
The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said 36 “martyrs from the army and law enforcement forces” were buried Tuesday.
The LCC, however, said at least 60 people were killed across Syria on Tuesday, including many children and women.
A family of six, including an infant, was killed in Aleppo province when a shell landed on their home, the opposition group said.
CNN cannot independently confirm reports of casualties or violence in Syria because the government has restricted access by international journalists.
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The regime lashed out on the United States, saying it “is continuing its blatant interference in the internal affairs of Syria, its open support for terrorists, covering up terrorists’ crimes, distorting facts about Syria at the UN, and extorting countries and the international community to beleaguer Syria,” the state-run news agency SANA reported Wednesday.
On Tuesday, residents of the pro-government town of al-Sheer, prevented U.N. observers from reaching al-Haffa by lying down on the road, the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Angry crowds surrounded the observers’ cars and hurled stones and metal rods at the vehicles, a U.N. official said.
As the monitors were leaving the area, an unknown source fired at three vehicles, said Sausan Ghosheh, a spokeswoman for the U.N. monitoring mission in Syria.
The Syrian regime had a different story. A banner on state-run TV said some residents in the province “tried to explain to members of the observers’ mission their suffering from terrorist groups, but the observers did not listen to them. Instead, one of their cars hit three citizens,” two of whom were in critical condition.
Ladsous’ spokesman called the firing on peacekeepers’ vehicles “deliberate and direct,” and said U.N. officials were evaluating whether the 300 unarmed peacekeepers in Syria are safe enough to continue their activities.
The United Nations estimates that more than 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have died since the crisis erupted in March 2011. Opposition groups give estimates ranging from at least 12,000 to more than 14,000.
CNN’s Richard Roth, Pam Benson, Holly Yan, Phil Black and Salma Abdelaziz contributed to this report.
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