The Syrian army is claiming that the U. S. bombed them in support of ISIS, reportedly killing as many as 80 soldiers and wounding a hundred more.
Syria’s army general command said warplanes from the U.S.-led coalition bombed a Syrian army position at Jebel Tharda near Deir al-Zor airport on Saturday, paving the way for Islamic State fighters to overun it.The air strike killed Syrian soldiers and was “conclusive evidence” that the U.S. and its allies support the jihadist group, the Syrian army said in a statement, noting that the strike was “dangerous and blatant aggression”.The U.S.-led coalition has been conducting air strikes against Islamic State since September 2014. In December Damascus accused the coalition of striking an army camp near Deir al-Zor, but Washington said it was done by Russian jets.A strike list issued by the U.S. on Saturday said it had carried out a strike at Deir al-Zor against five Islamic State supply routes, as well as strikes near Raqqa and elsewhere in Syria.Syria’s army controls Deir al-Zor airport and parts of the city which are otherwise entirely surrounded by territory held by Islamic State.
Reports are coming in that the U. S. is referring to the bombing of the Syrian army as unintentional.
There was a U. S. – Russia cease-fire agreement reached earlier this week, and within days, both were accusing the other of violations of that agreement.
Russian president Vladimir Putin earlier today questioned the U.S.’s commitment to the cease-fire agreement.
President Vladimir Putin on Saturday questioned US commitment to the ceasefire established in Syria, suggesting Washington was not prepared to break with “terrorist elements” battling forces loyal to Syrian president Bashar Assad.Syria’s army general command, meanwhile, said planes from the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State had bombed a Syrian army position at Jebel Tharda near Deir al-Zor airport, state media reported.The strike killed Syrian soldiers who had been preparing for an attack against Isis and was “conclusive evidence” that the US and its allies support the jihadist group, the Syrian army said in a statement. The Russian military said 62 Syrian soldiers were killed.
We will keep you updated as more news becomes available.
Updates:
Russia, too, is claiming that the U. S. is supporting ISIS.
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.
“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.
“We demand a full and detailed explanation from Washington. That explanation must be given at the UN Security Council,” she said.
The U. S. expresses “regret” over the bombing that killed Syrian soldiers.
The Obama administration expressed its “regret” Saturday for an airstrike that mistakenly killed Syrian forces, a senior administration official told Fox News, as the U.S. awaited a response from the Assad regime.The U.S. military halted its air raid against the Islamic State terror group in eastern Syria after learning it struck the Syrian military, a U.S. Central Command official confirmed. The CENTCOM official said the U.S. military was “certain” about the outcome of the strike. Officials had been watching these forces “for a few days” thinking they were ISIS.
[Featured image via Twitter]
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