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Moscow urges international community to prevent Syrian rebels from getting Manpads

26 October 2012 20:09 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Moscow urged the international community to prevent the man-portable air defense systems (Manpads) from reaching the armed Syrian opposition, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"The weapons would fall into hands of extremists, which is very dangerous," foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told a news briefing.

The armed opposition in Syria were "constantly getting full assistance from outside," Lukashevich said, adding that the civilians were suffering from the mounting violence.

Moscow called on all the countries that supply arms to Syria to undertake all possible measures to prevent the Manpads from reaching the extremists, "especially of those who openly warned they would shot down the civilian aircraft," Lukashevich said.

Citing verified information, Russian Chief of General Staff Nikolai Makarov said earlier this week that the Syrian opposition have acquired portable air-defense systems produced abroad, including the U.S.-made Stingers.