US decries Syria violence, says regime leaders were not "innocents"

The United States said on July 25 that it "condemns violence of any sort inside Syria," after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the US supported "terrorism."

In Moscow, Lavrov accused the US of "direct justification of terrorism" because it had not condemned a July 18 attack that killed at least three top-level members of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime in Damascus, dpa quoted the Interfax news agency as reporting.

Lavrov spoke of a policy of blackmail by the US in the UN Security Council, saying "they will support such terrorist acts unless a resolution against Syria is approved under Chapter VII."

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on July 25 that on the day of the attack, US officials "made absolutely clear that we condemn violence in any form inside Syria."

"We condemn all terrorist attacks, all bombings of targets of civilians," she said.

Nuland pointed out that the July 18 bombing "targeted senior military and security officials."

"I would note that these were not civilians. These were the organizers of Assad's military campaign who lost their lives," she said.

"Who bears responsibility for the preponderance of violence in Syria? Who is the one who is using now fixed-wing aircraft against their own people, helicopters, artillery, gunships? It is the Assad regime."

She said that "to draw the implication that these were innocents who were targeted is also wrong."