Moscow stepped up its war of words with Washington on Sunday, saying air strikes by a USA -led coalition on the Syrian army threatened the implementation of a U.S.
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The official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the incident, said the approval window to conduct the strikes was for 67 minutes.
The Foreign Ministry’s statement, sent to the U.N. Security Council, said American warplanes repeatedly attacked Syrian army positions on Saturday afternoon.
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.
The ABC reports that the RAAF were immediately called off the operation when Russian officials advised that the targets may have been Syrian military personnel.
Russian Federation has accused the US-led coalition in Syria of being on the “boundary between criminal negligence and direct connivance with Islamic State terrorists”.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said Zakharova should be embarrassed by that claim.
Australia’s prime minister has expressed regret for any loss of life to Syrian troops in an airstrike that involved Australian planes.
“A Syrian warplane belonging to the Syrian regime was brought down when targeted by fighters from the Islamic State in the city of Deir al-Zor”, Amaq said in an online statement.
Growing tensions between the United States and Russian Federation over the coalition bombardment of the Syrian military have cast doubts over a ceasefire that came into effect in Syria last week.
The Foreign Ministry said Saturday’s incident was a result of Washington’s “stubborn refusal” to cooperate with Moscow in fighting Islamic State, the Nusra Front – now renamed Jabhat Fatah al Sham – and “other terrorist groups”. Under the agreement, if the cease-fire holds for a week and humanitarian supplies reach needy civilians, then the US and Russia’s armed forces would begin exploring broader military cooperation.
The ceasefire came into effect on Monday and has largely held, despite dozens of alleged violations.
“Warplanes from the global anti-jihadist coalition carried out four air strikes today against Syrian forces surrounded by IS in the Deir Ezzor air base”, a Russian army statement said. “The coalition will review this strike and the circumstances surrounding it to see if any lessons can be learned”.
Syria’s ceasefire is on the brink of collapsing, after a US-led coalition strike killed dozens of regime soldiers and Aleppo city was hit by its first raids in almost a week.
A U.S. military official speaking to the AFP news agency 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”.
Meanwhile, Australia’s defence ministry has confirmed that its aircraft “were among a number of global aircraft taking part in this Coalition operation”. She said Moscow should instead demand a meeting with the Syrian government to press for peace. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday questioned the USA commitment to the shaky truce, suggesting that Washington wasn’t prepared to break with “terrorist elements” battling Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.
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Following the strike, the UN Security Council held an emergency meeting overnight at the request of the Kremlin.
