{"id":72,"date":"2016-09-18T16:52:14","date_gmt":"2016-09-18T16:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/?p=72"},"modified":"2016-09-18T16:52:14","modified_gmt":"2016-09-18T16:52:14","slug":"un-security-council-meets-after-us-coalition-air-strike-accidentally-kills-dozens-of-syrian-soldiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/2016\/09\/18\/un-security-council-meets-after-us-coalition-air-strike-accidentally-kills-dozens-of-syrian-soldiers\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Security Council meets after US-coalition air strike accidentally kills dozens of Syrian soldiers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(The Telegraph) The United Nations Security Council has convened at the behest of the Russians after dozens of Syrian soldiers were accidentally killed in a US coalition bombing raid.<\/p>\n

It met within hours of the Obama administration expressing its regret at the strikes on Jabal Therdeh, southwest of the Deir Ezzor airport in eastern Syria.<\/p>\n

According to Russian estimates 62 soldiers were killed in in the strikes, which the US said were aimed at the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.<\/p>\n

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said at least 83 soldiers lost their lives \u00a0in the attacks.<\/p>\n

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The raid took place within days of an agreement between Russia and America to co-operate in Syria and co-ordinate their efforts against \u00a0Isil,following talks between John Kerry, the US Secretary of State and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov.<\/p>\n

It was an \u00a0agreement intended \u00a0to broker a truce and bring relief to the stricken population, while limiting fighting to those areas under the control of Isil.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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T<\/span>he co-operation of Russia, which is an ally of the Syrian government, is crucial for both the international campaign against Isil in one of its strongholds and bringing peace to the stricken country.<\/p>\n

However the \u00a0American apology failed to satisfy the Russians with their UN ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, accusing the US of breaking the commitments it had made earlier in the week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is significant and frankly suspicious that the United States chose to conduct this air strike at this time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did nothing when Isil advanced on Palmeira.\u201d<\/p>\n

However Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the UN, \u00a0dismissed the Russians\u2019 decision to convene the Security Council as a stunt.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe halted the attack when we were told by Russia that it was possible that we were striking some of the Syrian military personnel and vehicles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are investigating the incident and if we determine that we did indeed \u00a0strike Syrian personnel, that was not our intention and we of course regret the loss of life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat said, even by Russia\u2019s standards, tonight\u2019s stunt, a stunt replete with moralism and grandstanding is uniquely cynical and hypocritical.\u201d<\/p>\n

A<\/span>ccording to one report from Russia\u2019s state-run Sputnik news agency, two F-16s and two A-10s carried out four strikes.<\/p>\n

Even though the surrounding area is under the control of Isil, the Syrian army is in control of the the airport itself and parts of the city.<\/p>\n

According to one Syrian military source the coalition strikes hit two hilltops near the airport.<\/p>\n

“Then, there was machine gun fire on the wounded soldiers and the paramedics from the planes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Kerry: US-Russia ceasefire plan in Syria a ‘turning point’ for the conflict<\/span>Play!<\/span>01:01<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
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U<\/span>S Central Command (Centcom) said it believed it was striking an Isil fighting position, adding that it halted the attacks as soon as it was told by the Russians that it may have been targeting the Syrian military.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe location of the strike is in an area the coalition has struck in the past, and coalition members in the Combined Air Operations Centre had earlier informed Russian counterparts of the upcoming strike.<\/p>\n

\u201cSyria is a complex situation with various military forces and militias in close proximity, but coalition forces would not intentionally strike a known Syrian military unit,\u201d Centcom added.<\/p>\n

The Syrian army general command said the air strike was \u201cconclusive evidence\u201d of US support for Isil.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(The Telegraph) The United Nations Security Council has convened at the behest of the Russians after dozens of Syrian soldiers were accidentally killed in a US coalition bombing raid. It met within hours of the Obama administration expressing its regret at the strikes on Jabal Therdeh, southwest of the Deir Ezzor airport in eastern Syria. According to Russian estimates 62… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7,10,11,4,8,9],"class_list":["post-72","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-air-raid","tag-isis","tag-russia","tag-syria","tag-un","tag-united-nations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions\/73"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}