Clinton Denounces Russia Sending Helicopters to Syria

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Russia’s move to ship more attack helicopters to the government in Syria will escalate “quite dramatically” a conflict described by a United Nations official as a civil war.

Clinton’s comments yesterday create a new source of tension between the U.S and Russia, even as UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan works against a mid-July deadline for his diplomatic effort to rein in the violence and begin a transition to remove Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. Annan wants to draw Russia, Syria’s ally, into the effort.