The Syrian government said on Monday four warplanes from the US-led coalition had targeted a Syrian army camp in Deir al Zor province on Sunday, killing three soldiers and wounding 13 more, calling the incident an act of aggression. “We’ve seen those Syrian reports but we did not conduct any strikes in that part of Deir Ezzor on Sunday”. Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said Russian Federation did fly long-range bomber missions into Syria on Sunday, but admitted, “we have not been able to correlate one to the other”.
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“We’re aware of the incident, however at this time we don’t have any indication our strikes killed Syrian soldiers”, she told The Associated Press.
Four Syrian soldiers were killed and 13 injured in the bombing raid, a monitor said yesterday.
The Observatory said it was the first time a U.S.-led coalition strike had killed Syrian government troops.
US officials have yet to present any evidence to support their claims of Russian responsibility, and there has been no independent confirmation of the assertions.
Brett McGurk, President Barack Obama’s special envoy to the coalition, also dismissed the claims on Twitter.
The director-general of the International Committee of the Red Cross says the organization is trying to reach out to the Islamic State group to help get humanitarian aid to people in areas under its control.
State news agency SANA said, Syria’s foreign ministry sent letters to the U.N. secretary general and to the head of the U.N. Security Council condemning the “flagrant aggression… which goes firmly against the aims of the U.N. charter”.
In addition to the casualties, it said the attack destroyed armoured and other vehicles and a weapons and ammunition depot.
Israel also occasionally carries out strikes against Syrian military facilities to prevent the transfer of weaponry to the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah militia, and Turkey has also conducted a handful of strikes against the militants.
“We are not at war with the Assad regime and have no reason to target the Syrian Army”, the official said.
“The Syrian government’s accusation illustrated the danger that misunderstandings or misinformation could trigger a wider conflict as Russian Federation and the United States lead separate, rival air campaigns to combat the threat posed by the Islamic State”.
However, member of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, Samir al-Nashar, said the conference had been postponed to Wednesday for further preparations.
Most of Dair Alzour province, where the city is located, was overrun by Islamic State during the group’s offensive through parts of Iraq and Syria a year ago.
On Sunday, its jets hit IS positions in Raqqa province, killing at least 49 people, mainly IS militants, according to the Observatory.
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The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strike on the village of al-Khan in Hasakah province killed only civilians, including seven children. With the Russians increasing their air strikes since the Turks shot down a jet last month and the USA and France, now joined by Britain, doing the same, there is an increasing risk of aircraft hitting the wrong target.
