The U.S. military said it notified Russian Federation before the airstrike, saying the coalition would be conducting operations in the Deir el-Zour area.
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Russian Federation has warned that the incident puts a “very big question mark” over the future of a precarious ceasefire agreed by Washington and Moscow, and a strongly worded foreign ministry statement on Sunday said that the strikes were “on the boundary between criminal negligence and direct connivance with Islamic State terrorists”.
US Ambassador Samantha Power said Washington regretted the loss of life but that Moscow’s request for the meeting was a “stunt”.
Meanwhile, the IS stronghold of Aleppo has been hit by its first aerial raids in almost a week.
But fighting began to build up again late last week, including in the central provinces of Homs and Hama, and the rebel-held eastern suburbs of Damascus.
Gen. Igor Konashenkov says he has been informed by Syrian authorities that at least 62 soldiers were killed and more than 100 were wounded in the attack in Deir al-Zour, according to The Associated Press.
The Syrian army also regained control over the vast majority of territories that they lost to Daesh on Saturday, after the US-led coalition gave an upper hand to the extremists in their offensive by shelling positions of Syrian servicemen.
“The truce, as we have warned, and we told the [US] State Department – will not hold out”, a senior rebel official in Aleppo told the Reuters news agency on Saturday, pointing to the continued presence of a United Nations aid convoy at the Turkish border awaiting permission to enter.
“Sixty-two Syrian soldiers were killed and a hundred others were injured in these strikes”.
A senior adviser to President Bashar al-Assad said the Syrian regime believed the strike that killed the Syrian soldiers was “intentional”.
While the ceasefire has reduced fighting, low levels of violence have persisted across Syria.
IS has reportedly claimed responsibility for downing the Syrian aircraft on a social media account affiliated with the terrorists.
The 15-member Security Council met on Saturday night after Russian Federation demanded an emergency session to discuss the incident and accused the United States of jeopardizing the Syria deal.
It again called on Washington to force Syrian rebels to sign on to the truce, warning that “otherwise, the realisation of Russia-US agreements… could be put in danger”.
The U.S. military said it may have unintentionally struck Syrian troops while carrying out a raid against IS on Saturday.
When asked if the incident spelled the end of the Syria deal between Moscow and Washington, Mr Churkin said: “This is a very big question mark”.
“With the various violations of the ceasefire, you’re going to see more friendly type fire going on”, Bishara said. “If what Ambassador Power has done today is any indication of their possible reaction, then we are in serious trouble”.
Syrian opposition activists are reporting the first airstrikes on rebel-held neighbourhoods in the northern city of Aleppo since a USA and Russian-brokered truce went into effect.
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Russian Federation has accused Syrian insurgents of violating a cease-fire it brokered with Washington after airstrikes were reported on rebel-held parts of the northern city of Aleppo. The situation in Syria is deteriorating, the Russian military said earlier, adding that the United States would be responsible if a fragile ceasefire in force since Monday collapses.
