Deadly air strike hits Syrian forces

The Syrian government said on Monday four warplanes from the U.S.-led coalition had targeted a Syrian army camp in Deir al Zor province on Sunday, killing three soldiers and wounding 13 more, calling the incident an act of aggression.

The foreign ministry said three armoured vehicles, four military cars and a weapons cache and ammunition had also been destroyed.

The monitoring group’s director Rami Abdel Rahman said airstrikes hit an ISIL headquarters and bases to the north, east, and southeast of Raqqa city – ISIL’s de facto capital.

But while the Syrian foreign ministry said in a statement that it had written to the United Nations over the incident, a spokesman for the coalition denied it had carried out any air strikes on the area in question.

According to US officials, this deployment is part of an agreement between Turkey and Iraq and does not involve the USA or the coalition.

But if confirmed, Sunday’s attack would be the first time a coalition bombing raid had, accidentally or otherwise, targeted the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“This hampers efforts to combat terrorism and proves once again that this coalition lacks seriousness and credibility to effectively fight terrorism”, according to the letter, which was published in Syrian state media.

The U.S.-led alliance began its airstrikes in Syria in September 2014, while Russia’s air campaign began a year later.

The U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, flatly dismissed accusations by Syria’s government accusing U.S.-led coalition jets of killing three soldiers and wounded 13 in the eastern Deir al-Zor province on Sunday.

Lt. Col. Kristi Beckman, director of public affairs at the Combined Air Operations Center at al-Udeid air base in Qatar, said there was no indication that the coalition had killed Syrian troops.

“We did not strike any vehicles or personnel targets in this area”.

It was the first time Syria has accused the U.S.-led coalition of hitting its troops.

The Syrian government has only a limited presence in Deir al-Zor province, which is mainly controlled by Islamic State. Russian Federation is also carrying out airstrikes, in coordination with Damascus. Russian Federation is not a part of the U.S.-led coalition and does not share targeting data with the US military.

British warplanes last week joined French and American aircraft in conducting strikes against the Islamic State in eastern Syria.