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United States military says airstrike halted over concerns it hit Syrian military

The Defense official said that before the strike was called off, US forces had destroyed roughly six vehicles and the “personnel associated with them”.

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The meeting is scheduled to start at 19:30 EDT (2330 GMT) at the request of the Russian Federation, one of the five permanent members of the 15-nation UN council, the sources said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry says Lavrov told Kerry that Russia has coordinated the aid delivery with Syrian government forces and called on Washington to exercise similar influence with Syrian rebels.

Syrian government warplanes and special forces on Sunday destroyed several positions of the Islamic State group in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour.

The U.S. Department of Defense is gathering information on an air strike in Syria that was halted on Saturday after coalition forces were told they were targeting the Syrian military, a spokesman said.

The air operation was carried out near Deir ez-Zour airport using the 2 F-16 and 2 A-10 aircraft belonging to coalition forces, according to a statement issued by the Russian Defense Ministry’s Facebook account.

The strikes had been planned in advance, a clear sign of which is that the Daesh terrorists launched a major attack on the same region immediately after USA action, the Syrian MP added.

A USA military official also appeared to confirm the attack, saying “we believe about a half-dozen vehicles, including what we think was a tank, were struck as well as personnel who were out in the open”.

Islamic State said via its Amaq news channel it had taken complete control of Jebel Tharda, where the bombed position was located, which would have allowed it to overlook government-held areas of Deir al-Zor.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said that more than 60 Syrian troops were killed in four airstrikes near the city of Deir al-Zour, the Interfax news agency reported.

Russian Federation is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government and has been carrying out airstrikes on behalf of his forces since past year.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry called the US -led coalition airstrikes a “dangerous and blatant aggression against the Syrian Arab Republic and its army”.

The strike occurred Saturday in a part of eastern Syria that is not covered by the ceasefire, which was brokered between Washington and Moscow and came into effect on Monday.

Earlier on Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin questioned the US commitment to cease-fire, suggesting that Washington wasn’t prepared to break with “terrorist elements” battling Assad’s forces.

The terms require moderate rebel groups to separate themselves from jihadists.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said earlier Saturday he remained “positive” about the truce but accused rebels of “attempts to regroup”.

“I would be very interested to see how Washington is going to react”.

Under the US-Russia deal, if the truce lasts seven days and humanitarian access is granted, Moscow and Washington are to work together to target jihadists including IS.

The truce calls for a halt to the violence between the Syrian regime and rebel forces, but it does not cover militant groups considered terrorists, such as ISIS and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as al Nusra Front.

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The Syrian government says insurgents have been firing on routes leading into the northern city of Aleppo, endangering United Nations efforts to deliver aid to besieged, rebel-held neighborhoods.

Children play with a bicycle near the rubble of damaged buildings in the rebel-held Bab al Hadid neighbourhood of Aleppo Syria