‘US strike on Syria counter-productive’

The Russian Defence Ministry said on Saturday that US jets had killed more than 60 Syrian soldiers in four air strikes by two F-16s and two A-10s coming from the direction of Iraq. 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-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. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a strongly worded statement that the strikes were “on the boundary between criminal negligence and direct connivance with Islamic State terrorists.” It said the incident was a result of Washington’s “stubborn refusal” to cooperate with Moscow in fighting  Islamic State, the Nusra Front - now renamed Jabhat Fatah al Sham - and “other terrorist groups.” 

Meanwhile, Islamic State shot down a Syrian military plane in the eastern Syrian city of Deir alZor, the Islamic State-affiliated news agency Amaq said on Sunday. “A Syrian warplane belonging to the Syrian regime was brought down when targeted by fighters from the Islamic State in the city of Deir al-Zor,” Amaq said in an online statement. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the Syrian conflict now in its sixth year, said the pilot of the MiG Syrian warplane was killed. The Observatory said the plane came down in the Jebel Tharda area which overlooks the government’s Deir al Zor military airport. Jebel Tharda is where the USled coalition air strikes killed dozens of Syrian soldiers.