The blame for an air strike that reportedly killed three Syrian regime soldiers has been laid on both the United States and Russian Federation, underscoring the increasingly tangled conflict taking place across Iraq and Syria.
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A monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, earlier said the jets that carried out the strike were “suspected” to be from the coalition. Hours later, an unnamed USA military official – who reportedly spoke on condition on anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss the matter publicly – has said that the country is “certain” that Russian Federation conducted the airstrike, AP reported.
“The Syrian Arab Republic strongly condemns this flagrant aggression by the US-led coalition forces, which blatantly violates the objectives of the UN charter”, the foreign ministry said in a letter to the UN Security Council and secretary general.
Brett McGurk, President Barack Obama’s special envoy to the coalition, also dismissed the claims on Twitter. “Our strikes were approximately 55 kilometres (35 miles) south-east of Ayyash”.
The Observatory said it was the first time a US-led coalition strike had killed Syrian government troops. “We have no indication any Syrian soldiers were near our strikes”, he said.
It would be the first time coalition warplanes had hit Syrian government forces.
In Iraq, 11 strikes targeted ISIS near four cities, striking six tactical units, 13 fighting positions and other targets, the statement added.
Much of Deir Ezzor is under the control of Islamic State, which the US-led coalition regularly targets in the province.
Britain joined the United States and its allies last week in the bombing campaign against Islamic State in Syria, before proposed global peace talks later this month.
Caption + This image posted online Sunday, Dec. 6, 2015, by supporters of the Islamic State militant group on an anonymous photo sharing website, shows Syrians inspecting a damaged building in the aftermath of an airstrike that targeted areas in Raqqa, Syria.
Last week, the United Kingdom chose to participate in the air strikes in Syria, extending its existing bombing campaign against IS in Iraq.
The Syrian government says aircraft belonging to the coalition launched nine missiles on a Syrian army camp in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour Sunday night, killing three soldiers and wounding 13 on Sunday night.
Syria’s foreign ministry says the strikes hamper “efforts to combat terrorism” and prove “that this coalition lacks seriousness and credibility”.
The city, in the province also called Deir el-Zour, is mainly in the hands of ISIS but the Syrian government still holds some parts of the city.
The Sputnik news outlet, which is owned by the Russian government, quoted its sources as saying two tanks and an ammunition depot belonging to the Syrian army were destroyed, in addition to the four soldiers killed.
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Elsewhere, Syrian media said four people were killed in rebel rocket fire near the now-closed Russian consulate in Aleppo.
