The United Nations Security Council held a closed emergency meeting Saturday night at Russia’s request to discuss the airstrike.
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The Russian military said 62 Syrian soldiers were killed near Deir Ezzor Airport, according to state-run Sputnik News Agency.
“We are reaching a really terrifying conclusion for the whole world: That the White House is defending Islamic State. Now there can be no doubts about that”, the RIA Novosti news agency cited Zakharova as telling the Rossiya-24 TV station.
Moscow accuses Washington of failing to separate the armed opposition to President Bashar Assad from radical groups in Syria, and Savchenko, who heads the Russian cease-fire monitoring center in Syria, said the USA “evaded” planned telephone talks Friday. “And yet in the face of none of these atrocities has Russian Federation expressed outrage nor has it demanded investigations nor has it ever called for a Saturday night emergency consultation in the Security Council or a Monday day or a Tuesday day or a Wednesday day, Thursday day, Friday day, Saturday, Sunday – you name it”, she said.
Military officials lashed out at the United States in the strongest language yet over the cease-fire struck last week in Geneva, a last-ditch effort to stop the bloodshed in Syria which has so far lasted five days. Konashenkov said the planes came from the direction of the Iraqi border, he added. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a woman and child were killed Saturday in Talbiseh, in the central Homs province.
Syria’s military says the US -led coalition struck its base in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour, allowing the Islamic State group to advance in the fiercely contested area. However, aid convoys have been unable to enter rebel-held parts of the northern city of Aleppo – a key component of the deal. “But this is a very risky route”.
He appeared to be referring to the Fatah al-Sham Front, an al-Qaida-linked group previously known as the Nusra Front, which is deeply embedded in rebel-held areas and fights alongside more moderate groups.
Syria’s Foreign Ministry denied on Saturday that Assad regime was blocking aid access to the divided city of Aleppo.
Government forces and rebels groups have traded accusations of truce violations, and aid groups are still waiting to deliver humanitarian supplies to besieged areas inside Syria.
President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was keeping to its obligations under the truce, and the Syrian government was “fully abiding” by the agreement.
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He said Syrian rebels were using the cease-fire to regroup and “are planning to go on the offensive” and that “acts of terror are possible in crucial districts of Aleppo, Damascus, Tartus and Latakia”.
