Stung by U.S. criticism on Syria, Russia reminds Washington of 9/11 support

[IceWizard]

Tue Oct 6, 2015 | 8:26 AM EDT

MOSCOW (Reuters) -
Russia strongly rebuffed U.S. criticism of its air strikes in Syria on Tuesday, reminding Washington how it had supported the United States in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on New York in 2001.

Moscow has become increasingly critical of
what it says is a Western propaganda
campaign aimed at distorting the aims of its
Syria intervention.

The Kremlin says its primary goal is to help President Bashar al-Assad fight Islamic State militants. But the United States and others have accused it of acting to try to prop up Assad and of targeting other rebel groups instead.

In comments likely to draw a reaction in
Washington, Russian Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Tuesday
evoked the Kremlin's reaction to 9/11 when
rejecting the U.S. stance on Russia's Syria
operation.

"I want to remind you ... after the September 11th attacks, we shared the U.S. pain as if it were our own, understanding what terrorism is," Zakharova told a news conference.

"We supported the United States in everything,
(including) in the U.N. Security Council. We
helped them fight terrorism. We didn't ask 'Are
they good or bad terrorists?'."

She recounted Russia's own history of Islamist attacks, saying fighting Islamist militants was a
matter of national security for Moscow.

"We have been through this, we know what it is like and we don't want to see international
terrorism in our country again. This is to painful
for us. And we expect understanding on this
one."


(Writing by Gabriela Baczynska and Jack
Stubbs; Editing by Andrew Osborn)