Russia accuses US-led coalition of 'barbaric' bombing of Syria's Raqqa
MOSCOW - Russia accused the US-led coalition in Syria on Sunday of wiping the city of Raqqa "off the face of the earth" with carpet bombing in the same way the United States and Britain had bombed Germany's Dresden in 1945.
The Russian Defense Ministry, which has itself repeatedly been forced to deny accusations from activists and Western politicians of bombing Syrian civilians, said it looked like the West was now rushing to provide financial aid to Raqqa to cover up evidence of its own crimes.
Major-General Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry, said in a statement that around 200,000 people had lived in Raqqa before the conflict in Syria, but that not more than 45,000 people remained.
"Raqqa has inherited the fate of Dresden in 1945, wiped off the face of the earth by Anglo-American bombardments," said Konashenkov.
