The Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, confirmed that his country’s aircraft had been involved, but pulled out when Russian officials advised the targets may have been Syrian military personnel.
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“While Syria remains a dynamic and complex operating environment, Australia would never intentionally target a known Syrian military unit or actively support Daesh”, the statement claimed, offering condolences to the families of the dead and pledging to cooperate with a U.S. inquiry.
A day after a deadly US-led coalition attack on a Syrian Army position in Deir Ezzor claimed the lives of over 60 soldiers, a Syrian Air Force plane was shot down and its pilot killed.
The Syrian General Command called the bombing a “serious and blatant aggression” against Syrian forces, and said it was “conclusive evidence” that the USA and its allies support Daesh militants.
Assad described the attack that killed dozens of Syrian soldiers in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour as a “blatant American aggression”.
The Syrian military’s statement comes after a senior opposition figure said earlier Monday the ceasefire was “clinically dead” after hundreds of reported violations by the government, according to The Associated Press.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights did not immediately report any casualties in the raids on the Orum al-Kubra area west of Aleppo city.
The opposition blamed government warplanes.
“Coalition forces believed they were striking a Daesh fighting position”, the Pentagon said in a statement, referring to the militant group by its Arabic acronym.
A fragile ceasefire between Bashar al Assad’s regime and Syrian opposition forces that was brokered by the United States and Russian Federation last week has ended, with no word of a renewed truce on Monday.
The State Department said it was ready to work with Russian Federation to strengthen the terms of the agreement and expand deliveries of humanitarian aid but added that Russian Federation must clarify its position on the status of the cease-fire.
Syrian state news agency SANA reported last last week that the truce would last until midnight on Sunday.
Despite the US-Russia deal reached on September 9, fragile nationwide ceasefire in Syria in force since September 12 is undermined by numerous outbreaks of hostilities.
Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday expressed hope that a cease-fire in Syria brokered by the United States and Russian Federation could still hold, despite a declaration from the Syrian military that the truce is over amid other indications the latest worldwide attempt to quiet the fighting has failed.
He said USA and Russian officials were meeting in Geneva to try to sort out aid deliveries to Aleppo and other besieged communities.
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The Turkish leader said on Monday that the offensive will last until the area “is no longer a threat” to Turkey.
