Russian senator skeptical about U.S.-led coalition's ability to stop militants from leaving Syria's Raqqah
MOSCOW. June 1 (Interfax) - The chance that terrorists reportedly sealed in Syria's Raqqah might break out should raise red flags regarding the actions of the Western coalition and its allies deployed in that territory, Russian Federation Council defense and security committee first deputy head Franz Klintsevich said.
"The fact that the militants have the opportunity to leave Raqqah, even thought they are formally surrounded there by the so-called Syrian democratic forces and U.S., British and French military units, should be a subject of a special conversation," Klintsevich's press service quoted him as saying.
If the allies deliberately left corridors for the militants to leave Raqqah, "then this gives even more reasons to claim that they are concerned not about defeating ISIL [Islamic State, a terrorist organization banned in Russia] throughout the entire Middle East but only about their local successes," Klintsevich said.
"Or else the coalition is simply incapable of sealing gaps through which militants are infiltrating, which also evokes some thoughts," Klintsevich said in commenting on the Russian Defense Ministry's report that the Russian Aerospace Forces had killed about 80 ISIL militants attempting to infiltrate Palmyra from Raqqah.
The militants undertook a new attempt to break out of Raqqah to Palmyra in the early hours of May 30, the Defense Ministry said. Russian warplanes had destroyed the first column of militants moving from Raqqah to Palmyra on May 25.
