“Our rules of engagement are to target Daesh, or ISIS”, he said.
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He says he regrets “the loss of life and injury to any Syrian personnel affected”.
“As Australians would expect, the USA -led Coalition will review this incident thoroughly and Australia will cooperate fully with this review”.
“Straight after the coalition’s strikes, IS militants launched an offensive”, said the statement, adding that “fierce fighting against the terrorists” ensued nearby.
The commander of USA forces in the Middle East says the coalition would never intentionally target Syrian government forces.
USA ambassador Samantha Power said Moscow’s request for the meeting was a “stunt”, while her Russian counterpart Vitaly Churkin accused the United States of violating agreements that it would not target army positions.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has said the USA airstrike was “on the boundary between criminal negligence and direct connivance” with the militants.
Russian Federation said Sunday that the blunder could place the delicate Syrian truce, in place for less than a week, under threat.
She also says a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson should be “embarrassed” for issuing a statement suggesting that the airstrike indicated that the USA was complicit in trying to help IS.
The air raid by the US-led coalition killed dozens of Syrian soldiers and led to a harsh verbal attack on Washington by Damascus and Moscow. Last December, Syria accused the coalition of attacking a government army camp in Deir al-Zour but the USA denied it.
18, “from 5pm to 5:50pm near an aerodrome of the Deir ez-Zor city (Syria), the aircraft of “anti-IS coalition’ (two F-16 and two A10) delivered four airstrikes at units of Syrian government forces which were surrounded by Islamic State terrorist groupings”, Konashenkov noted”.
He said ISIS militants surrounding the air base launched an attack on the Syrian army positions after the strike.
Iran is a close ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, and has sent high-ranking officers and other military forces to bolster his troops.
Russian Federation said the situation in Aleppo was “especially tense” on Sunday, blaming the instability on rebels.
In a statement, the Russian defence ministry accused what it termed “moderate rebels” of causing the ceasefire to fail.
Konashenkov says Moscow still has not been able to get in touch with the US -backed opposition to coordinate cease-fire efforts despite Washington’s assurances.
The Syrian statement said the air strikes were “conclusive evidence” that the USA and its allies support the jihadist group.
Russia’s military said Syrian rebels violated the cease-fire dozens of times over the past day, including with strikes on military and civilian targets in Aleppo.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a woman and child were killed Saturday in Talbiseh, in the central Homs province. The Russian military says insurgents have held up the delivery by firing on government positions along the main route leading into besieged, rebel-held districts, in violation of the cease-fire. The LCC and the Observatory say a number of people were wounded in the air raids.
The cease-fire took effect on Monday, and despite reports of violations, it has largely held.
Between 62 and 83 Syrian soldiers were reportedly killed by the strike by aircraft from the US-led coalition in the country’s east.
At the request of Russian Federation, the United Nations Security Council held a closed-door emergency meeting on this issue on Saturday.
The Americans “not only turned out to be unable to give an adequate explanation of what happened, but also tried, as is their custom, to turn everything upside down”, the statement said.
Russian Federation says US-led coalition airstrikes that mistakenly killed dozens of Syrian troops on Saturday – prompting a diplomatic firestorm – could jeopardize a fragile ceasefire.
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American military officials said the pilots in the attack believed they were targeting the Islamic State and added that the coalition had informed Russian officials about the strike beforehand.
