But it was already on the verge of collapse after USA -led coalition airstrikes reportedly killed dozens of Syrian soldiers in the northeast region of Deir al-Zor on Saturday, saying that it had mistaken them for members of the Islamic State militant group (ISIS).
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“The actions of coalition pilots – if they, as we hope, were not taken on an order from Washington are on the boundary between criminal negligence and connivance with Islamic State terrorists”, it said in a strongly-worded statement.
Syrians help a wounded youth following an air strike on the Fardous rebel held neighborhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on April 26, 2016.
The so-called “regime of calm” was declared by the Syrian army last Monday following a ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russian Federation.
On Monday, the opposition reported 254 violations by government forces and their allies since the truce started on September 12.
A Syrian activist group says 92 people have been killed in Syria since the start of the U.S. -Russia-brokered cease-fire a week ago. Moscow supports President Bashar al-Assad with its air force. Russia’s United Nations representative, Vitaly Churkin, said Russian Federation had no “specific evidence” of USA collusion with Islamic State.
USA ambassador Samantha Power said Moscow s request for the meeting was a “stunt”, while her Russian counterpart Vitaly Churkin accused the U.S. of violating agreements that it would not target army positions.
A frame grab taken from footage released by Russia’s Defence Ministry October 9, 2015, shows a Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber dropping a bomb in the air over Syria.
“We will continue in an appropriate, measured way with the worldwide coalition, to do what is required, but there has been no holders as such put on Australian activity”, she said.
Kerry told reporters in NY that the seven days of calm and aid deliveries envisaged in the truce had not yet taken place.
Kerry told CNN on Sunday that Assad is a “spoiler” in the process, and called on Russian Federation to “stop the grandstanding, stop the showboating, and get the humanitarian assistance going”. The government blamed some of the violence on what it said was an insurgent assault, but another rebel official denied they had yet launched new attacks.
Syria called Saturday’s US -led strikes on the outskirts of the eastern city of Deir el-Zour a “dangerous and blatant aggression against the Syrian Arab Republic and its army”.
Peter Jennings, executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said his best estimate was that Australia’s Wedgetail command and control plane was involved rather than Hornet fighter planes.
Syria’s state news agency is reporting that troops have regained control of areas they lost to the Islamic State group in the east of the country after an airstrike by the USA -led coalition. “US policy, in general terms, has committed dozens of similar mistakes”, he told journalists.
The Saturday airstrikes involved Australian, British and Danish warplanes on Syrian army positions.
Turnbull says Australian rules of engagement were to target the Islamic State movement.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 90 soldiers were killed.
Russian Federation called an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council over the incident Saturday night, and its Defense Ministry accused the United STates of violating the cease-fire.
Activists and rebel groups also accuse the government of violating the cease-fire.
The U.S. military has said it might have mistakenly struck Syrian troops while carrying out an air raid against IS in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour.
The Turkish leader said on Monday that the offensive will last until the area “is no longer a threat” to Turkey. Islamic State-linked media also reported the incident.
She says Australia would “never intentionally, knowingly target a known Syria military unit”. Routes will be opened to allow humanitarian aid convoys to bring food and medicine to areas the government has besieged.
“With the rebels failing to fulfill conditions the cease-fire agreement, we consider its unilateral observance by the Syrian government forces meaningless”, Rudskoi said.
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“The regime of Bashar Assad had no real intention to commit to the truce”.
