This Article is From Sep 18, 2016

Coalition Forces May Have Conducted Air Strike On Syrian Military Position: Pentagon

Coalition Forces May Have Conducted Air Strike On Syrian Military Position: Pentagon

Coalition forces would not intentionally strike a known Syrian military position. Pentagon said.

Washington, United States: The US-led coalition fighting the ISIS group in Syria may have hit Syrian military positions inside the country on Saturday after Russia accused it of killing at least 62 Syrian troops, the Pentagon said.

"Coalition forces believed they were striking a Daesh fighting position," it said in a statement, using an alternate term for the IS group. "The coalition air strike was halted immediately when coalition officials were informed by Russian officials that it was possible the personnel and vehicles targeted were part of the Syrian military."

Syria's armed forces said coalition aircraft hit a Syrian military position near the Deir Ezzor airport in the country's east on Saturday.

Regime ally Russia said 62 Syrian soldiers were killed and at least 100 more wounded in strikes by "warplanes from the international anti-jihadist coalition."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said at least 83 soldiers were killed in the raids on Jabal Therdeh, southwest of the Deir Ezzor airport, updating an earlier toll of 30 killed.

"The location of the strike is in an area the coalition has struck in the past, and coalition members in the Combined Air Operations Center had earlier informed Russian counterparts of the upcoming strike," the Pentagon said in its statement.

Coalition forces would not intentionally strike a known Syrian military position, it added.

"The coalition will review this strike and the circumstances surrounding it to see if any lessons can be learned."
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