MOSCOW (Dispatches) -- The Russian military said Wednesday it was closely watching the situation around Syria and was aware of the movements of a U.S. naval strike force headed for the Persian Gulf.
The U.S. Navy said Tuesday that the strike group, headed by the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, would set sail for the Middle East and Europe on Wednesday.
The Russian military said the U.S. strike force was due to arrive in the Middle East at the start of May.
"We are attentively tracking the situation unfolding around Syria and in the whole region," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
It also reacted to a warning of imminent military action in Syria from U.S. President Donald Trump.
"Instead of talking about the coalition's readiness to fire missiles at Syria, the United States would do better to rebuild the destroyed city (of Raqqah) and provide wide-ranging help to its suffering population," the ministry said in a statement.
It repeated its assertion that a suspected chemical weapons attack carried out in the Syrian town of Douma had been faked by the White Helmets organization, rejecting Western allegations that Syrian government forces were responsible for it.
A Britain-based war monitor said government forces in Syria were emptying main airports and military air bases over possible U.S. strikes
Trump said in a Tweet on Wednesday that American missiles "will be coming" to Syria. He was reacting to a warning from Russia on Tuesday that any U.S. missiles fired at Syria would be shot down and the launch sites targeted.
His comments raised fears of direct conflict over Syria for the first time between the two world powers backing opposing sides in the country's protracted war, which has aggravated instability across the Middle East.
"Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and 'smart!'," Trump boasted in a post on Twitter.
In response, Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a Facebook post that "smart missiles should fly towards terrorists, not towards the lawful government".
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said any U.S. missile salvo could be an attempt to destroy evidence of the reported gas attack in the Syrian town of Douma, for which Damascus and Moscow have denied any responsibility.
Oil prices jumped to their highest level in more than three years on Wednesday after Trump's missile warning, and U.S. stock index futures fell sharply amid alarm over possible Russian-U.S. conflict over Syria.
Moscow and Washington blocked attempts by each other at the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday to set up international investigations into chemical weapons attacks in Syria.
Moscow's threat to down U.S. missiles came from its ambassador to Lebanon, Alexander Zasypkin, who said it was based on previous statements by President Vladimir Putin and the Russian armed forces chief of staff.
The Russian military said on March 13 that it would respond to any U.S. strike on Syria by targeting any missiles and launchers involved.  
Zasypkin also said a clash between Russia and the United States over Syria "should be ruled out and therefore we are ready to hold negotiations".
Both Russia and Iran have warned Syria’s enemies against military action in recent days, underlining their commitment to the Syrian government.
Ali Akbar Velayati, the top adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, said during a visit to Damascus on Tuesday that an Israeli attack on an air base in Syria earlier this week would "not remain without response".
The Zionist regime held top-level security consultations on Wednesday amid concern it could be targeted by Syria or Iran if the United States strikes Syrian government forces.
On Monday, UN Syria peace envoy Staffan de Mistura cited the air base strike along with other recent events in Syria in a briefing to the Security Council, cautioning against a "situation of uncontrollable escalation".
Syria's Russian-supplied air defenses shot down an Israeli F-16 jet in February during a previous bombing run against what the Zionist regime described as Iranian-backed positions in Syria.
Syria described Trump’s threat as a "reckless escalation", state news agency SANA said.
"We are not surprised by such a reckless escalation from a regime like the United States which has fostered and continues to foster terrorism in Syria," SANA reported an official source at the foreign ministry as saying.
Damascus has almost entirely expelled terrorists from their former bastion of Eastern Ghouta outside Damascus since mid-February, angering their supporters.
The terrorist group dug in Douma, Jaish al-Islam, finally agreed to withdraw. That clinched a huge victory for Syria, crushing a long bastion of terrorism in the Eastern Ghouta region near the capital Damascus.
"It's not at all strange that it (the United States) supports the terrorists in Ghouta and condones their fabrications and lies to use them as a pretext to target Syria," a Syrian official source said Wednesday.
Trump and other Western leaders have vowed a quick and forceful response to Saturday's alleged gas attack, which rescue workers say killed more than 40 people.
The United States, Britain and France have argued the attack bears all the hallmarks of a strike ordered by the Syrian government. Damascus and Moscow have rejected the accusations as "fabrications".
Last year, Trump launched a cruise missile strike against a Syrian air base in retaliation for an alleged sarin attack.
Russian military police would enter Douma Thursday, Foreign Ministry said. The Russian army said the situation in Eastern Ghouta had been "totally stabilized".
"The situation in Eastern Ghouta has been totally stabilized. Refugees are continuously returning to where they lived. As of today some 60,000 people have returned to their homes," Lt.-Gen. Viktor Poznikhir said at a briefing in Moscow.