Russian warplanes bombed US-backed fighters in several small villages in northern Syria after they mistakenly thought Islamic State forces were in the area, a top US general said on Wednesday. Army Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend said Russian and Syrian regime aircraft attacked the villages to the southeast of Al-Bab in Aleppo province on Tuesday, resulting in an unspecified number of casualties. The Russians apparently had observed ISIS fighters moving out of the area and so wrongly assumed that incoming forces were jihadists.
"We had some Russian aircraft and regime aircraft bomb some villages that I believe they thought were held by ISIS, yet ... actually on the ground were some of our Syrian Arab Coalition forces," Townsend told reporters in a video call from Baghdad.
The SAC forms part of a broader alliance called the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) comprising Kurdish and other groups that the United States have been training and advising to lead the fight against ISIS. Townsend added that US troops were less than 5km away from the villages and observed the bombing. The American soldiers communicated the error, which was then quickly passed on to the Russians through a special "deconfliction" hotline the two powers have established to avoid mishaps.
"It became apparent that the strikes were falling on some of the Syrian coalition positions," Townsend said.
"Some quick calls were made to our deconfliction channels and the Russians acknowledged and stopped bombing there."
Townsend referred casualty questions back to the SAC.
Source: News24
accidentally.....another drama
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