UNITED NATIONS 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.
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Syria is a complex situation with various military forces and militias in close proximity, but coalition forces would not intentionally strike a known Syrian military unit, officials said.
Warplanes strafed or bombed opposition-held areas in Maarat al-Numan, Saraqeb and Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib, Teir Maalah, north of Homs, and Souha, east of Hama, overnight after other strikes earlier on Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The actions of the coalition “clearly paved the way for Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists to attack the position and take control of it, ” the agency said citing the General Command of the Army and Armed Forces.
The Russian army said 60 Syrian soldiers were killed in US-led coalition strikes.
The United States military said it had ceased airstrikes against what it had believed to be Islamic State positions after Russian Federation informed it that Syrian military personnel and vehicles may have been hit.
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According to the State Department, Secretary of State John Kerry called Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov today and demanded that Russia “use its influence” to ensure that humanitarian aid shipments begin to flow nationwide, warning that the U.S. won’t engage in the joint targeting operations unless that happens.
Activists in Aleppo, Syria, protest against the United Nations for what they called its failure to lift the siege on their rebel-held area of the city.
Gen. Viktor Poznikhir said the rebel groups had “not met a single obligation” of the truce as 55 attacks from rebel groups, some backed by the US, occurred over the past 24 hours, leading to the deaths of 12 civilians, the BBC reported.
Russian Federation said two F-16s and A-10 jets entered Syrian airspace from Iraq.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov look toward one another during a press conference following their meeting in Geneva where they discussed the crisis in Syria, on September 9, 2016.
“We are reaching a really terrifying conclusion for the whole world: That the White House is defending Islamic State”, she said.
According to the BBC, the incident is the first time USA forces have been involved in a confirmed attack on Syrian forces. “Because we have heard statements from the Pentagon which simply fly in the face of what we have heard from President Obama and Secretary Kerry”, he said.
In a statement, the Russian defence ministry accused what it termed “moderate rebels” of causing the ceasefire to fail.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said conditions in Syria were deteriorating, adding that it believed the ceasefire had been breached 199 times by rebels and saying the USA would be responsible if it were to collapse.
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Using the Arabic acronym for ISIS, the Syrian military said the incident was “firm proof of the U.S. support of Daesh and other terrorist groups”.
