Russia says US fueling tension with Syria attack

Russia accused the United States of fuelling dangerous tension in the Middle East on Monday after Syria said that U.S. helicopters had attacked a farm near the border with Iraq. "Moscow has responded with great concern to what happened," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "We believe attacks that are worthy of condemnation should not be launched on the territory of sovereign states under the slogan of the fight against terrorism." "It is obvious that such unilateral military actions have a sharply negative effect on the situation in the region, and widen the seat of dangerous armed tension." The United States, which accuses Syria of failing to stem the flow of al Qaeda fighters and other insurgents into Iraq to attack U.S. forces, has neither confirmed nor denied the incident. Syria said eight people were killed and accused the United States of committing a "terrible crime." Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad visited Moscow in August and was among the first foreign leaders to back Russia's military intervention in Georgia, an operation Western states condemned as disproportionate. Russian media reports said Damascus was seeking to buy missile systems from Moscow.