The Russian Defence Ministry said on Saturday that USA -led coalition planes had bombed Syrian troops fighting Islamic State militants near the airport in Deir al-Zor, killing 62 soldiers and wounding about 100 more.
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A Russian Defence Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, says Russia wanted an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the strike.
U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, said in a statement that American warplanes carried out a strike south of Dair Alzour but it could not confirm that they hit Syrian forces. The United States immediately withdrew and did not strike other planned targets in that area, the official said.
Over 470,000 people have likely died in the ongoing civil war, Syrian Center for Policy Research analysts concluded in February 2016.
Russian Federation has “decisions to make about the influence that they have on Assad and the degree to which they’re going to use it or not”, Kirby said.
The development comes a day after Russia’s Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said he hoped the Security Council would adopt a resolution endorsing the ceasefire agreement at next week’s high-level General Assembly meeting, which draws leaders from around the globe.
Russian news agencies cited another official as saying there had been 55 violations throughout the country.
The ceasefire began on Monday, but aid convoys have been unable to enter rebel-held parts of the city of Aleppo – a key part of the deal.
Russian Federation says this incident is evidence the U.S. has stubbornly refused to coordinate so far.
What is preventing the convoy of United Nations trucks carrying the aid is the military presence of the rebel forces and the Syrian Army on the road that leads to the besieged city.
US Secretary of State John Kerry had earlier called his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and condemned “repeated and unacceptable delays of humanitarian aid”, spokesman John Kirby said.
The United States military said it had ceased airstrikes against what it had believed to be Islamic State positions after Russian Federation informed it that Syrian military personnel and vehicles may have been hit.
It is not uncommon for the Coalition Air Operations Center to confer with Russian officials as a professional courtesy and to avoid risking conflict between US and Russian aircraft, the statement said.
But 40 trucks carrying urgently needed food aid were still stuck on the border with Turkey on Saturday.
The UN has alleged the Syrian government has refused to allow its aid deliveries into the stricken city.
On Friday air strikes killed three civilians, including two children, in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun in Idlib Province, the Observatory said.
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The Fatah al-Sham Front, linked to al-Qaeda and previously known as the Nusra Front, is deeply embedded in rebel-held areas and fights alongside more moderate groups.
