“U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq yesterday…”
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Syria’s army said the US-led strikes, which took place at around 5pm local time were “conclusive evidence” of USA support for Islamic State, calling them “dangerous and blatant aggression”. The forces believed they were targeting a Daesh position in an area the coalition had struck in the past, it said.
Australian aircraft were involved in a US-led coalition operation which killed dozens of Syrian soldiers who were apparently mistaken for Islamic State fighters, the Defence Department has confirmed.
Mr Churkin said that in his decades as a diplomat he had “never seen such an extraordinary display of American heavy-handedness as we are witnessing today”.
Activists say Syrian government forces have killed five civilians in the latest alleged violations of a USA and Russian-brokered cease-fire.
“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 United States has apologised for an air strike against Syrian government forces fighting the Islamic State group.
CBS News correspondent David Martin reports the U.S.is still trying to figure out why, as a Defense official says, “we didn’t hit the right guys”.
The stinging attack comes after the USA admitted leading a coalition airstrike which reportedly killed up to 80 Syrian soldiers in the east of the war-torn country.
Intense air strikes over the past 24 hours have hit ISIS-controlled areas near Deir al Zor city, the Observatory and Syrian state media said.
When Russian officials informed coalition officials that it was possible the targeted position belonged to the Syrian military, the coalition airstrike was halted immediately, it said.
The Syrian Civil Defense group in Homs says government artillery caused the deaths in Talbiseh.
Meanwhile, the United States accused Russian Federation of grandstanding on Saturday by calling a U.N. Security Council meeting over USA -led coalition air strikes in Syria, as Russian Federation said the attacks killed dozens of Syrian soldiers and could endanger a truce deal between Moscow and Washington. The Observatory reported that intense airstrikes by Russian warplanes have killed at least 38 IS fighters since Saturday.
The head of Fateh al-Sham Front, which changed its name from Al-Nusra Front after renouncing its ties to al-Qaeda, said late on Saturday that “neither we nor rebel groups will allow the siege of Aleppo to continue”.
Russian military officials meanwhile lashed out at both the United States and mainstream rebels in the strongest language yet over the ceasefire struck last week in Geneva, a last-ditch effort to stop the bloodshed in Syria.
The base and adjacent government-held neighbourhoods of Deir Ezzor city have been under siege since 2012 and have been dependent on resupply by air.
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Insurgents have said they only reluctantly accepted the deal because it could relieve the dire humanitarian situation in areas they control, including in eastern Aleppo, but the agreement was now at risk after the promised aid deliveries failed and bombings continued in some areas.
