Russian criticizes US response on Syria attack

According to Russia’s military the airstrike, reported on Sunday, killed at least 62 soldiers near Deir ez-Zour, with more than 100 wounded.

At a doorstop on Sunday in New York, Turnbull confirmed Australian aircraft were involved in the sortie.

Malcolm Turnbull says Australia regrets the loss of life and injuries to Syrian soldiers as the result of a bombing raid on what were believed to be Islamic State targets. When Turnbull was asked by a reporter if he agreed with Power, he refused to comment on Russia’s response.

“You can point out those contradictions, there is obviously a lot of politics involved in this”.

In another dig at Mr Putin, with whom he had conducted face-to-face talks recently on the sidelines of the G20 which he described as “very, very frank and extensive” Mr Turnbull said the focus now was to avoid making political points in favour of finding a lasting peace in Syria.

He said Australia’s rules of engagement are to target IS but it is a very complex environment.

“But there are a number of other groups involved, not least of which of course are the Syrian government forces”. Russian Federation called for an emergency closed door security council meeting with the United Nations to discuss the incident, accusing the US-led coalition of endangering Syria. “I don’t think anyone would argue with that”.

“[For example] who was meant to be advising whom, but I’m not going to get into the element of speculation”, he said.

Malcolm Turnbull has acknowledged Australian warplanes were part of an ill-directed airstrike that went wrong in Syria on Saturday killing a claimed 60 Syrian government troops instead of the intended Islamic State fighters, while also threatening a delicate ceasefire in that war-torn country.

“I can confirm that Australian aircraft were involved in the sortie that has been the subject of the recent news reporting”.

“It remains to be seen what led to this particular outcome”, she said, adding it was premature to discuss what had happened before a coalition review.

A senior advisor to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said the Syrian government is of the belief the airstrikes were an “intentional” move, however an Australian Defence Department statement issued after the attack said the loss of life was tragic and accidental.