Russia and Syria have condemned US airstrikes targeting anti-Daesh forces, saying the "brazen" attacks violate the Arab country's sovereignty and show Washington's claims of fighting terrorism are false.
The US military launched the attack against a convoy of the Syrian military heading towards the border near Jordan where Daesh terrorists are based.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov on Friday described the attacks as “unacceptable,” which also claimed the lives of civilians.
Speaking in Geneva, Gatilov said the strikes violated Syria’s sovereignty and would not help efforts to achieve a political solution to the ongoing crisis in the country.
A Syrian government’s military source said the US strike hit "one of our military points" late Thursday, killing several people and causing material damage.
The source said the attack hampered efforts by the Syrian army and its allies to fight Daesh terrorists who have been wreaking havoc in Iraq and Syria for years.
“This brazen attack by the so-called international coalition exposes the falseness of its claims about fighting terrorism,” the source said.
“The Syrian Arab Army is fighting terrorism on its territory, and no party has the right to determine the course of its operations,” the Syrian military source added.
Syrian state media provided no precise figures about the number of casualties, but the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said eight people were killed in the attack.
The US said the attack targeted “pro-regime forces... that posed a threat to US and partner forces” in the nearby Tanf base where American troops train what they call "moderate" militants.
Yehya al-Aridi, a spokesman for the foreign-backed opposition High Negotiations Committee holding talks with a Syrian government delegation in Geneva, welcomed the US strike as a “robust action” against Damascus.
The development comes only a few days after US jets killed nearly two dozen civilians in an attack on an area in Syria’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr near the border with Iraq.
In September last year, US airstrikes on Syrian army positions near the Dayr al-Zawr military airport also killed over 80 soldiers.
The latest strikes are the first against government forces since the United States launched cruise missile strikes on a Syrian air base in April in the face of army advances against foreign-backed terrorists.
