The U.S. military, in an apparent admission that it may have hit the position, said in a statement that coalition air strikes near Deir al-Zor had been halted when Russian Federation told coalition officials they may have hit the Syrian army.
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Washington’s mistaken air strikes on Syrian government forces raise several questions; not least why American aircraft were hitting what they thought were IS positions in an area where IS was engaged with Syrian forces.
The 15-member Security Council met on Saturday night after Russian Federation demanded an emergency session to discuss the incident and accused the United States of jeopardising the Syria deal.
Under the ceasefire agreement, the us and Russian Federation would work together to target the Fatah al-Sham Front, as well as Daesh, while Assad’s forces refrain from striking opposition-held areas.
Power said “even by Russia’s standards, tonight’s stunt – a stunt replete with moralism and grandstanding – is uniquely cynical and hypocritical”.
The U.S. military said it may have unintentionally struck Syrian troops while carrying out a raid against IS on Saturday.
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Maria Zakharova said the strikes, which the Russian Defense Ministry had said killed 62 Syrian soldiers, jeopardized a Russian-U.S. agreement on Syria and looked like evidence that Washington was helping Islamic State militants.
Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman has been quoted as saying that the attack showed “that the White House is defending Islamic State”.
Power said Zakharova should be embarassed by that claim.
The attacks come only five days into the breakthrough ceasefire agreement orchestrated by the United States and Russian Federation with Moscow saying in a statement that they believe that the U.S. is responsible for the imminent breakdown of the agreement.
The deal was meant to allow the safe passage of aid to besieged areas of Syria, but some 20 trucks have been waiting in Turkey since Monday, unable to travel to rebel-held east Aleppo. Russian Federation backs the Syrian government and Mr. Assad, and the United States has called for him to step down. It said rebel groups had increased attacks and it urged the U.S. to act or be responsible for the collapse of the truce.
The U.S. Central Command issued a statement late Saturday, after the strike in Deir el-Zour.
“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 in the statement.
But it turned out to be the Syrian Arab Army position at Deir al-Zor military airport. Instead, government said the air strike was “a very serious and flagrant aggression” that aided the Islamic State and proved its long-held assertion that the United States supports the jihadist group as part of an effort to oust President Bashar al-Assad.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says a woman and child were killed Saturday in Talbiseh, in the central Homs province.
The US-led coalition has been conducting air strikes against Islamic State since September 2014 and is also supporting rebels against Assad elsewhere in Syria.
Earlier on Saturday, Russia and Syrian rebels cast doubt over the prospects for the increasingly shaky ceasefire, with Moscow saying the situation was worsening and a senior insurgent warning that the truce “will not hold out”.
Video: Is the Syria ceasefire under threat? “As Australians would expect, the US-led Coalition will review this incident thoroughly and Australia will cooperate fully with this review”.
He said Daesh militants surrounding the airbase launched an attack on the Syrian army positions after the airstrike.
While the Americans have blamed Russian Federation for not pressuring Damascus enough to facilitate humanitarian access to Syria.
Under the agreement, a U.S. -Russia Joint Implementation Cell to coordinate strikes against the Islamic State and al-Qaida will not be set in motion until there are seven consecutive days of reduced fighting and aid deliveries.
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”.
“Coalition forces believed they were striking a Da’esh fighting position that they had been tracking for a significant amount of time before the strike”, Centcom said.
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Russian Federation is always on the side of people in Syria. The UN has said both sides in the war are to blame for the delay of aid to Aleppo, where neither has yet withdrawn from the Castello Road.
