Prominent Arab Analyst Stresses Deliberate US Airstrikes against Syrian Army

Rasa - Abdel Bari Atwan, the editor-in-chief of Rai al-Youm newspaper, underlined Pentagon's opposition to any truce and reconciliation in Syria, and said Washington deliberately launched the airstrikes on government positions in the Southern countryside of Deir Ezzur city on Saturday night.

News ID: 423717

Date: 20 September 2016 - 04:06

RNA - "Before attacking Iraq, former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had announced that Washington's satellites are able to even identify the numbers written on Saddam's uniforms. Now the question is how 4 F-16 fighter jets have mistakenly targeted the Syrian army's positions near Deir Ezzur airbase and killed over 80 Syrian soldiers," Atwan wrote on Monday.

"Let's assume that the US fighter jets have made a mistake; now the question is why such an incident has not happened against the Iraqi forces, for instance in Fallujah, Tikrit, Ramadi and Mosul or the Russian, Turkish or Kurdish forces," he added.

Noting that the Pentagon is seeking to push the Syrian ceasefire into failure, Atwan said, "They launched the airstrikes in the hope that the Syrian army or the Russian forces would show a retaliatory reaction or speak of the ceasefire failure, but this didn’t happen since Russia and Syria are committed to the truce and have shown self-restraint."

Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday that four strikes against Syrian positions had been delivered by US-led coalition aircraft, including two F-16 jet fighters and two A-10 support aircraft.

The Syrian military called the bombing a "serious and blatant aggression" against Syrian forces, and said it was "conclusive evidence" that the US and its allies support ISIL militants.

Also on Sunday, the Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman blasted Washington over the recent airstrikes near Deir Ezzur, and said such moves serve the interests of the ISIL terror group.

"If previously we had suspicions that Fatah al-Sham Front (formerly known as al-Nusra Front) is protected this way, now, after Saturday airstrikes on the Syrian army we come to a really terrifying conclusion for the entire world: The White House is defending the ISIL," Maria Zakharova said.

"We demand a full and detailed explanation from Washington. That explanation must be given at the UN Security Council," she added.

Russia has demanded full and detailed explanation from Washington over the incident in Deir Ezzur, in which 80 Syrian troops were killed and over 100 injured.

Also, a military source said on Sunday that the ISIL launched attacks on the Syrian army positions in Deir Ezzur only 7 minutes after the US-led coalition's airstrikes on Saturday, adding that the air and ground assault were highly coordinated.

The source said after the coalition's pounding of the Syrian army near Deir Ezzur airbase, the ISIL could take full control of al-Tharda mountain and then Deir Ezzur military base, adding that the army and national defense forces deployed near the airbase immediately won it back from the terrorists by launching a counterattack.

Noting that Deir Ezzur is now almost in tranquility and no change has occurred in the military map of the region, the source said by attacking the Syrian army positions, the US seeks to prevent military operations to break the terrorists' siege on the city.

The source said the simultaneous raid of the ISIL terrorists immediately after the coalition airstrikes is the best evidence of the high coordination done between the US and the terrorists.

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