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ISIL shoots down Syrian military jet, ‘kills pilot’

-Russian ceasefire plan for Syria and bordered on connivance with Islamic State.

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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights added that the raid, which the USA said was unintentional, lasted 40 minutes, hitting several Syrian positions near an airbase in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour.

It says its coalition planes halted strikes when informed of the Syrian presence.

However, shortly after the bombing started Russian officials advised the multinational Combined Air Operations Centre that the targets may have been Syrian military personnel.

The ministry’s statement, sent to the presidents of the United Nations and the U.N. Security Council, said American warplanes repeatedly attacked Syrian army positions on Saturday afternoon.

She said Russia’s decision to call a council meeting was “cynical and hypocritical” as Moscow had never expressed such outrage at the killing of civilians by Syrian government forces during more than five years of conflict.

Power described Russia’s request for the meeting as a “stunt, replete with moralism and grandstanding”, saying Moscow should instead demand a meeting with the Syrian regime to press for peace.

Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman has been quoted as saying that the attack showed “that the White House is defending Islamic State”.

It said the plane came down in the Jabal Therdeh area which overlooks the government’s Deir Ezzor military airport.

Australian aircraft were part of a US-led coalition operation near Deir al-Zor when Russian officials advised its targets may have been Syrian military personnel, the Defence Department said in a statement on Sunday.

“Russia is exerting all possible effort to restrain (Syrian) government troops from returning fire”, Senior Army General Viktor Poznikhir said.

But the United States says the coalition did inform Russian Federation of the forthcoming strike.

Mr Churkin said the United States air strike put “a very big question mark” over the future of the ceasefire agreement and its timing is “frankly suspicious” because it comes just two days before the U.S. and Russian Federation are supposed to implement an agreement on military coordination in Syria. The Observatory said at least 30 extremists were killed in Sunday’s counterattack by the army.

Syria’s army has been fighting off a fierce Islamic State offensive around the Deir al-Zor airport since previous year.

Last December, Syria accused the coalition of attacking a government army camp in Deir al-Zour but the United States denied it.

The Syrian army said in a statement last week that the seven-day truce ends at midnight Sunday.

“If the American side does not take the necessary measures to carry out its obligations. a breakdown of the ceasefire will be on the United States”.

Earlier on Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin cast doubt over Washington’s commitment but also said he believed securing a ceasefire was a common goal for the two countries, which both agreed to extend on Friday.

He implied the future of the Syria deal could rest on how Washington reacts to the incident.

A challenge for Washington is to persuade opposition groups it backs to separate themselves from the former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front, previously called Al-Nusra Front.

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A key plank of the truce deal was the delivery of aid to areas including Aleppo, where an estimated 250,000 people in rebel-held areas of the city are living under government siege.

A rebel fighter carrying a weapon rides his bike in 2014 in a street in the northeastern city of Deir Ezzor