Saturday, September 17, 2016

Two F-16 and two A-10 jets flew into Syrian air space from neighbouring Iraq: Russia says 62 Syrian troops killed in US-led strikes

US-led coalition aircraft hit a Syrian army position in the country's east on Saturday, an armed forces statement said, while a monitor group reported dozens of soldiers dead.


"Warplanes from the American coalition hit one of the Syrian army's positions... near the Deir Ezzor airport," the statement carried by state media said.

It said the raid was carried out at 5:00pm local time (1400 GMT) and led to an unspecified number of "casualties".

Regime ally Russia said 62 Syrian soldiers were killed and at least 100 more wounded in strikes by "warplanes from the international anti-jihadist coalition".

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said at least 80 soldiers were killed in the raids on Jabal Therdeh, southwest of the Deir Ezzor airport, updating an earlier toll of 30 killed.

Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said he could not specify who carried out the strikes.

Syria's army has been fighting off a fierce offensive by the Islamic State jihadist group on the Deir Ezzor military airport since last year.

"This is a dangerous and bold attack against the Syrian state and army, and clear evidence that the United States and its allies support the terrorist group Daesh," the statement said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

The Russian military said two F-16 and two A-10 jets flew into Syrian air space from neighbouring Iraq to carry out the strikes.

"Straight after the coalition's strikes, IS militants launched an offensive," said the statement, adding that "fierce fighting against the terrorists" ensued nearby.

"If these strikes were due to an error in the target coordinates, that would be a direct consequence of the US' refusal to coordinate with Russia its fight against the terrorist groups in Syria," it said.

The IS-linked Amaq news agency said late Saturday IS jihadists were able to "seize full control of Jabal Therdeh, which overlooks the Deir Ezzor airport".

A Syrian military source also told AFP that US-led coalition strikes hit an army position in Jabal Therdeh.

Under a fragile truce deal negotiated by the United States and Russia, fighting in Syria is to halt on all fronts across the country except those held by IS.

The US-led coalition has been carrying out raids against IS for two years in both Syria and Iraq.
  [i24news.tv]
17/9/16
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