Moscow stepped up
its war of words with Washington on Sunday, saying air strikes by a U.S.-led
coalition on the Syrian army threatened the implementation of a U.S.-Russian
ceasefire plan for Syria and bordered on connivance with Islamic State.
The diplomatic row
heated up on the last day of a seven-day ceasefire marred by a surge of
violence as warplanes hit the strategic northern city of Aleppo for the first
time since the truce came into effect.
On Saturday, the
Russian defense ministry said U.S. jets had killed more than 60 Syrian soldiers
in the eastern Syrian city of Deir al-Zor in four air strikes by two F-16 and
two A-10 fighter jets coming from the direction of Iraq.
Syria's U.N.
Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari charged that U.S.-led strikes were aimed at
torpedoing the ceasefire, but France's foreign minister, speaking in New York,
placed the main blame for truce violations on the government of President
Bashar al Assad.
The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group with contacts
across Syria, cited a military source at Deir al-Zor airport as saying at least
90 Syrian soldiers had been killed in the four air strikes.
Russia's foreign
ministry denounced the U.S. position on the incident as "unconstructive
and inarticulate".
"The actions of
coalition pilots - if they, as we hope, were not taken on an order from
Washington - are on the boundary between criminal negligence and connivance
with Islamic State terrorists," it said in a strongly-worded statement.
"We strongly
urge Washington to exert the needed pressure on the illegal armed groups under
its patronage to implement the ceasefire plan unconditionally.
Otherwise the
implementation of the entire package of the U.S.-Russian accords reached in
Geneva on Sept. 9 may be jeopardized."
ACCUSATIONS AGAINST
WASHINGTON
Russia, which along
with Iran supports Syria's Assad, has called on the United States to press
units of the moderate Syrian opposition to separate themselves from Islamic
State and other "terrorist groups".
Iran also condemned
the U.S. military action. "Such moves indicate America supports terrorist
groups in Syria," a foreign ministry spokesman said, according to Iranian
news agencies.
In Venezuela where
he was attending a summit, Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari said the
U.S.-led coalition strikes were intended to sink the ceasefire.
But French Foreign
Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said that despite the U.S.-led coalition air strikes
on the Syrian army, it was Syrian government forces which were principally
behind the truce violations.
"We have to
hold on to this accord and keep it alive at all costs so we need to get over
the events of the last few hours," Ayrault told reporters at a ceremony at
the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York.
"But while
there were these incidents ... we shouldn't forget that what has harmed the
American-Russian ceasefire is firstly the regime. It is always the regime of
Bashar al-Assad."
The U.S. military
said the coalition stopped the attacks against what it believed to be Islamic
State positions in northeast Syria after Russia informed it that Syrian
military personnel and vehicles may have been hit.
"The White
House is defending Islamic State. Now there can be no doubts about that,"
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in comments aired by
state TV.
The U.S. ambassador
to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said Zakharova should be embarrassed by
that claim. Russia's U.N. representative Vitaly Churkin said Russia had no
"specific evidence" of the U.S. colluding with Islamic State
militants.
The diplomatic row
should further complicate humanitarian aid deliveries to Syria, including its
largest pre-war city Aleppo where the fragile truce is under threat.
Aleppo was hit by
air strikes for the first time since the truce began. Moscow said militants
there were preparing for large-scale military actions against Syria's army.
HEAVY CLASHES
Heavy clashes
continued on Sunday east of Damascus in the rebel-held Jobar suburb, the
Observatory and a witness said.
The al-Rahman
Legion, part of a Free Syrian Army rebel alliance there, said its fighters had
destroyed a government tank and killed soldiers after government forces tried
to storm Jobar for the second time this week.
The Observatory said
at least eight people died and many were seriously injured when helicopters
dropped barrel bombs onto a town in a rebel-held part of the southern Syrian
province of Daraa on Sunday.
Insurgents say they
only reluctantly accepted the initial deal to relieve the dire humanitarian
situation in besieged areas they control, and blamed Russia for undermining the
truce.
"The truce ...
will not hold out," a senior rebel official in Aleppo said.
Rebels have also
accused Russia of using the ceasefire to give the Syrian army and allied
Shi'ite militias a chance to regroup and deploy forces ready for their own
offensives.
ISLAMIC STATE
Islamic State is
excluded from the truce. Separate U.S.-led, Damascus-led and Turkey-backed
operations against the militants have continued throughout the ceasefire on
various fronts.
One Turkish soldier
and six Syrian rebels were wounded on Sunday in clashes with Islamic State near
the Syrian border town of al-Rai as Turkey-backed Syrian rebels pushed south
towards the IS-held town of al-Bab, Turkey's Dogan News agency reported.
Turkey hit Islamic
State targets within Syria with warplanes, according to Dogan, the Observatory
and a rebel commander.
On Sunday, Islamic
State said it had shot down a warplane in Deir al-Zor with
"anti-aircraft" guns, in the same area as the U.S.-led coalition
strikes hit the Syrian military on Saturday.
The Syrian military
confirmed the loss of a warplane it said was carrying out an operation against
rebels.
(Reporting by Dmitry
Solovyov in Moscow and Lisa Barrington in Beirut. Additional reporting by
Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Humeyra Pamuk in Istanbul, Tom Perry in Beirut,
Polina Devitt in Moscow, John Irish in New York, Deisy Buitrago in Venezuela
and the Dubai Newsroom
"The truce ...
will not hold out," a senior rebel official in Aleppo said.
Rebels have also
accused Russia of using the ceasefire to give the Syrian army and allied
Shi'ite militias a chance to regroup and deploy forces ready for their own
offensives.
ISLAMIC STATE
Islamic State is
excluded from the truce. Separate U.S.-led, Damascus-led and Turkey-backed
operations against the militants have continued throughout the ceasefire on
various fronts.
One Turkish soldier
and six Syrian rebels were wounded on Sunday in clashes with Islamic State near
the Syrian border town of al-Rai as Turkey-backed Syrian rebels pushed south
towards the IS-held town of al-Bab, Turkey's Dogan News agency reported.
Turkey hit Islamic
State targets within Syria with warplanes, according to Dogan, the Observatory
and a rebel commander.
On Sunday, Islamic
State said it had shot down a warplane in Deir al-Zor with
"anti-aircraft" guns, in the same area as the U.S.-led coalition
strikes hit the Syrian military on Saturday.
The Syrian military
confirmed the loss of a warplane it said was carrying out an operation against
rebels.
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