By Aaron Miller-
Russia has slammed a US-led air attack in eastern Syria that killed dozens of government troops, claiming that at least 62 Syrian troops were killed in the Deir al-Zour strikes on Saturday.
The US duly expressed “regret” for the “unintentional loss of life”.Syria says it has lost a warplane in the area, which so-called Islamic State (IS) said it had shot down.
A Syrian army source claimed the attack had facilitated IS to gain ground in the area around the Syrian airbase but that Syrian forces had regained most positions on the hilltop with the assistance of Syrian and Russian air support.
Russian’s U.N Ambassador, Vitaly Churkin said the attack put “a very big question mark” over the truce’s future.
The US coalition planes halted strikes when informed of the Syrian presence by Russian forces
Although ceasefire deal agreed by the US and Russia, went into effect in Syria on Monday, important terms of the deal such as the safe passage of aid, were not met.
Tension
The attack caused tension between the US and Russia at the United Nations Security Council on Saturday night, with respective representatives of various countries walking out during the speech of the other.An emergency meeting of the council by the Russian government was criticized by US envoy Samantha Power, as “cynical and hypocritical”.
“Russia really needs to stop the cheap points-scoring and the grandstanding and the stunts and focus on what matters, which is implementation of something we negotiated in good faith with them,” she told reporters.
But Mr Churkin However, Ms powers conduct was described by Mr. Churkin as an extraordinary display of American heavy-handedness” as shown by Ms Power. He expressed a prospect of doom for the future of Syria, basing it on the reaction of Ambassador Power. Churkin said:
He implied the future of the Syria deal could rest on how Washington reacts to the incident.
“If what Ambassador Power has done today is any indication of their possible reaction then we are in serious trouble,” Mr Churkin said. The accidental air strikes were a fatal mistake that express extreme negligence and recklessness by American air crafts hitting areas they mistook for IS positions, when they knew IS were locked in a battle with Syrian forces there.
Washington’s mistaken air strikes on Syrian government forces raise several questions; not least why American aircraft were hitting what they thought were IS positions in an area where IS was engaged with Syrian forces. The ceasefire is only partial, and is yet to deliver the promised access for aid deliveries. The prospect of a joint U.S Russian air campaign against IS has now been complicated with this embarrassing blunder of the U.S
HALTED
Although the raids were immediately halted following notification of the misdirected attacks, trust between Russia and America will have been greatly harmed
The error – admitted by the Pentagon – is bound to erode what limited trust, if any, exists between Washington and Moscow. If the ceasefire does survive, that is going to make implementing any plans for a coordinated US-Russian air campaign against IS more complicated.
This is heartbreaking news for the families of soldiers killed and injured in this dreadful error.