The US military said that the coalition stopped its strikes against what it believed to be Islamic States of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group positions in the eastern city of Deir Az Zor on Saturday after Russian Federation informed it that Syrian military personnel and vehicles may have been hit.
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The CENTCOM official described the target as “irregular forces”, adding that multiple USA aircraft struck six military troop carrier vehicles and one tank which were “out in the open”. The incident has threatened an already fragile USA and Russian-brokered cease-fire that has largely held despite dozens of alleged violations on both sides.
The incident marks the first USA -led attack on a government forces’ positions since the coalition started striking IS positions in Syria in 2014.
Churkin says the timing of the USA airstrike is “frankly suspicious” because it comes just two days before the US and Russian Federation were supposed to implement an agreement on military coordination in Syria and the US had not previously targeted IS forces fighting Syrian government troops.
Australian Defence officials have offered condolences to the families of Syrian soldiers killed during a coalition bombing raid on what was believed to be Islamic State targets.
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”.
The US-led coalition has been carrying out anti-Daesh strikes since September 2014 without Syrian government consent.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the Syrian conflict, said that the pilot of the MiG Syrian warplane was killed.
“We call on the American partners to conduct the most thorough investigation and take measures to exclude such incidents in the future”. They had been tracking ISIS fighters as well as Syrian units in the same area. Either way, they destroyed half a dozen vehicles and killed the personnel around them.
Russian Federation earlier said the current ceasefire in Syria is in danger of collapse and the United States will be to blame.
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.
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 US said its planes halted the attack in Deir al-Zour when informed about the presence of Syrian troops.
The Syrian warplane was engaged in striking the IS positions in al-Tharda Mountain when it was shot down, said the report.
Syrian state-run news agency SANA said the military was able to quickly regain control of the area from ISIS.
The truce saw violence drop across Syria for several days after it came into force Monday, but fighting has since erupted on several fronts and besieged civilians are still waiting desperately for promised aid deliveries.
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IS controls much of the province that carries the same name and borders Iraq.
