Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), a member of the National Security Working Group and former Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs, released the following statement on today’s Russian airstrikes in Syria:
“With today’s airstrikes, the Russian Federation is no longer just protecting and supplying the Assad regime, it is directly participating in its brutality. The choice to strike Homs, an area already besieged and essentially destroyed by the Assad regime’s barrel bombing campaign, contradicts Russia’s claims to be assisting with the fight against ISIS.
Already millions of Syrians have fled their homes because of the fighting, and nearly 250,000 have been killed. These numbers will surely grow following Russia’s indiscriminate strikes on civilian population centers. As I wrote in a letter to Secretary Kerry last week, American leadership is critical to bringing about an end to this horror. Putin’s aggression in Syria is unacceptable and contravenes his government’s support for three UN Security Council Resolutions.”
###
