“Coalition forces would not intentionally strike a known Syrian military unit”, the statement said, offering at an unexpected moment one of the clearest statements yet of how far the United States has moved from three years ago.
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“It is highly suspicious that the United States chose to conduct this particular air strike at this time”, Russia’s ambassador Vitaly Churkin said.
The aid delivery is a second step of the U.S.
But she accused Russian Federation of pulling “a stunt” that is “uniquely cynical and hypocritical” in calling for the emergency meeting, while never taking similar action to condemn Assad’s regime “for some of the most systematic atrocities we have seen in a generation”. We are waiting for an explanation from the military commanders of the aviation group, headed by the US. He instead struck a deal with Russian Federation to dismantle Assad’s chemical weapons program.
A tense cease-fire brokered by Moscow and Washington went into effect on Monday.
“We are investigating the incident”, Ms Power told journalists as the closed-door meeting got under way.
She added: “After today’s attack on the Syrian army, we come to the awful conclusion that the White House is defending Islamic State”. “Now there can be no doubts about that”, the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying. In a speech on September 13, Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad said Syria was one of five countries that routinely refused to cooperate with human rights investigators.
What the Syrian rebels think of the ceasefire: Rebel groups fighting to topple Mr.al-Assad issued a joint statement listing deep reservations with the agreement they described as unjust, echoing concerns outlined in a letter to the United States on Sunday.
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”.
UNITED NATIONS The United Nations Security Council will meet on Saturday at the request of Russian Federation, diplomats said, to discuss air strikes by the usa -led coalition in Syria, which Moscow said had targeted and killed Syrian military personnel.
The area in eastern Syria where the airstrike took place is not part of the ceasefire.
Apart from the USA and Russian involvement, Assad is supported by Iran and Arab Shia militias, while Sunni rebels seeking to unseat him are backed by Turkey and Gulf Arab states.
The Islamic State controls much of the eastern province, although there are some widely scattered Syrian military installations in the scantily-populated area and near the city of Deir al-Zour. The news service notes that, if confirmed, the casualties would mark the first time the US has directly struck Syrian government forces during the country’s long-running civil war.
“Coalition forces believed they were striking a Daesh fighting position”, said a Pentagon statement, referring to the extremist group in its Arabic acronym.
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. It halted the operation after it was informed by Russian Federation that Syrian troops may have been hit. On Sept. 13, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights raised its overall death toll for the conflict, saying it had documented 301,781 civilians and fighters killed since March 18, 2011, but estimated the total death toll to be around 430,000. Starting next Monday – if those conditions are met – joint coordination between the United States and Russian Federation on airstrikes is to commence against the Islamic State and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly known as al-Nusra), which are not parties to the truce.
“Those trucks should be going in and that aid should be getting delivered with or without the arrangement that was arrived at in Geneva”, State Department Spokesman John Kirby said.
After the Deir al-Zor attack, it said Moscow had told the United States to rein in the Syrian opposition and make sure it did not launch a new offensive, adding that it had informed Washington about a concentration of rebels north of Hama.
While the Americans have blamed Russian Federation for not pressuring Damascus enough to facilitate humanitarian access to Syria.
Moscow accuses Washington of failing to separate the armed opposition to President Bashar Assad from radical groups in Syria, and Savchenko, who heads the Russian cease-fire monitoring center in Syria, said the U.S. “evaded” planned telephone talks Friday. “And we of course regret the loss of life”.
“The armed rebel groups have not withdrawn away from the road, but on the contrary, they are still committing some provocative, unsafe acts”, the ministry said. He did not identify the planes’ country affiliation, but said they were part of the worldwide coalition.
He said 12 civilians had died in the attacks, including two children and a Syrian Red Crescent volunteer.
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Two convoys of aid for Aleppo have been waiting at the Turkish border for days. No aid has entered since the cease-fire agreement was reached. The rebels deny the accusation.
