US-led coalition hits Syrian army camp killing three soldiers in act of 'flagrant aggression', ministry says
The Syrian government says that four warplanes from the US-led coalition targeted a Syrian army camp in Deir al-Zor province, killing three soldiers and wounding 13 more.
Syria has labelled the incident an act of "flagrant aggression".
"The Syrian Arab Republic strongly condemns this flagrant aggression by the US-led coalition forces, which blatantly violates the objectives of the UN charter," the foreign ministry said in a letter to the UN Security Council and secretary general.
The jets fired nine missiles at the camp — located two kilometres from an IS stronghold — on Sunday evening, Syria's foreign ministry said in a statement shown on state television.
"The Syrian foreign ministry demands the UN Security Council act immediately in the face of this aggression and take appropriate measures to prevent its recurrence," the letter added.
It is the first publicly declared incident of its type since the United States and allied countries began bombing Islamic State in Syria more than a year ago.
The US-led coalition has denied its planes hit a Syrian army target.
"We've seen those Syrian reports but we did not conduct any strikes in that part of Deir al-Zor yesterday. So we see no evidence," coalition spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said.
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He said the coalition's only strikes in Deir al-Zor on Sunday were some 55 kilometres south-east of the area where the troops were allegedly killed, near the town of Ayyash.
"We struck 55 kilometres away from the area that the Syrians say was struck. That was the only area in Deir al-Zor we struck yesterday," he told AFP.
However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a Britain-based monitor, also reported the strikes, saying four troops had been killed and 13 wounded.
SOHR said it was the first time a US-led coalition strike had killed Syrian government troops.
The statement from Syria's foreign ministry came only hours after president Bashar al-Assad slammed Britain's joining the coalition, calling it harmful and illegal.
"It will be harmful and illegal and it will support terrorism as happened after the coalition started its operation a year or so [ago]," Mr Assad said.
Last week, British MPs voted to join the air strikes in Syria for the first time.
The Syrian government has regularly criticised the US-led strikes as ineffective and illegal because they are not coordinated with regime forces, and the ministry said the Deir al-Zor incident was further evidence of the coalition's failings.
"The US coalition lacks the seriousness and credibility to effectively combat terrorism," the ministry said.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-07/syrian-government-says-us-led-coalition-hi...