Nine people including a child were killed on Sunday when a pair of barrel bombs hit an opposition-held town in the southern province of Daraa, the Observatory said.
Advertisement
But the Russian government has claimed the attack allowed ISIS to overrun a Syrian military outpost in north-eastern Syria and said there can now be “no doubts” that the U.S. is backing the jihadis.
The seven-day ceasefire is supposed to end at midnight Sunday, according to a Syrian army statement issued last week.
Moscow laid the blame squarely on the opposition after activists reported the strikes.
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. A U.S. Defense official told the paper that the strike was an “intelligence failure”.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry is sharply criticizing the United States as being obstructive and deceptive regarding the airstrike by coalition warplanes on a Syrian military position that killed more than 60 soldiers.
The ministry’s statement, sent to the presidents of the United Nations and the U.N. Security Council, said American warplanes repeatedly attacked Syrian army positions on Saturday afternoon.
“The army has retaken most of its positions on Jabal Therdeh with Russian and Syrian air support”, the source said.
Syrian ally Russian Federation said 62 Syrian soldiers were killed and at least 100 more wounded in strikes by “warplanes from the global anti-jihadist coalition”. She also labeled Moscow’s actions as “uniquely cynical and hypocritical”, claiming that Russian Federation failed to condemn the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad regime for “some of the most systematic atrocities we have seen in a generation”.
He said Russian Federation may remain part of the agreement and try to use the incident as leverage over the United States.
“The actions of the coalition pilots-if they were not, as we hope, taken on the instructions from Washington-border on criminal negligence and directly abetting ISIS terrorists”, the ministry said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said four strikes on Aleppo city killed one woman and left several people injured, but it could not identify who carried them out.
The US military said in its statement that Syria was a “complex situation” but that “coalition forces would not intentionally strike a known Syrian military unit”.
They come a day after US airstrikes in Syria, meant to target Islamic State fighters, hit a Syrian Army outpost, killing 62 soldiers. IS had claimed that its fighters captured Tharda mountain, which overlooks the city’s government-controlled airport.
The U.S. Central Command said Saturday’s airstrike was “halted immediately” when U.S. forces were informed by Russian Federation “that it was possible the personnel and vehicles targeted were part of the Syrian military”.
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.
Advertisement
The truce excludes operations against Islamic State and al-Qaeda-linked militants.
