Moscow concerned over reports US intends to increase military aid to right gunmen in Syria

MOSCOW, May 30. /ITAR-TASS/. US weapon supplies to Syrian militants will escalate the conflict and can backfire, Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

“At the time of the presidential election campaign’s final stage, illegal armed groups have sharply intensified terrorist activities aimed at escalating tensions and intimidating civilians ahead of the election on June 3,” goes the statement.

Terrorists launched shell and rocket attacks on the local rallies in support of the candidates, the foreign ministry. The tragedy in the city of Daraa, where a mortar shell hit a crowd, killing 39 and injuring 205, was the most outrageous of them.

Random mortar shelling of residential areas in Syria continues, says the statement, the special target being areas densely populated by ethnic and confessional minorities. A car bomb explosion in the Alawite neighborhood of Homs, Zahra, killed 12 and injured 40. The Christian city of Mharda was hit by rocket artillery.

Tensions between the government forces and armed opposition persist, the ministry said. The Syrian regular army has advanced in the strategically important Damascus suburb, Mliha, near the international airport, and achieved some success in the fighting for control of Aleppo where they lifted the more than a year-long siege of the central prison. Meanwhile, illegal groups press on in the governorates of Idlib and Daraa.