IRON FIST

Clinton: Russia Aiding Syria

U.N. announces state of civil war.

In a dramatic turn Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that Russia may be sending attack helicopters to aid Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime. On the same day, the head of the U.N.'s peacekeeping department said the situation in Syria has become a full-scale civil war, and a U.N. spokesman said increased violence over the last five days has resulted in a "huge cost in the civilian population." Violence in the region has continued unabated as forces loyal to the Syrian ruler try to crush a 15-month popular uprising. Clinton said Tuesday that the United States is “concerned about the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on the way from Russia to Syria,” saying that addition to the iron-fisted ruler’s armory “will escalate the conflict quite dramatically.”