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UK took part in strike that killed government troops

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    UK took part in strike that killed government troops

    Apart from generating more refugees for Germany - What are we doing there? Public relations? Is the realm under immediate threat?


    Syria conflict: UK took part in strike that killed government troops

    A handout picture made available by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) showing Syrian Arab Army soldiers in the Armament Academy in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, 05 September 2016EPA
    Syria says its forces were deliberately attacked
    The UK took part in a recent coalition air strike in Syria that killed dozens of government troops fighting the so-called Islamic State, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has confirmed.

    Russia said at least 62 Syrian personnel were killed in the Deir al-Zour strikes on Saturday.

    The MoD said it would "not intentionally target Syrian military units".

    The US has already expressed "regret" for the "unintentional loss of life".

    The British aircraft that took part in the operation was an unmanned remotely piloted Reaper drone.

    RAF Reaper droneMOD
    The RAF's Reaper drones can carry both Hellfire missiles and 500lb Paveway laser-guided bombs
    An MoD spokesman said: "We can confirm that the UK participated in the recent coalition air strike in Syria, south of Deir al-Zour on Saturday and we are fully co-operating with the coalition investigation."

    A Syrian army source said the air strike had allowed IS to gain ground in the area around the Syrian airbase, but that Syrian forces had regained most positions on the hilltop nearby with the help of Syrian and Russian air support.

    Syrian President Bashar al-Assad denounced the air strike as a "flagrant aggression".

    US admits air attack
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    What's left after five years of war?
    The attack is likely to endanger an already shaky ceasefire deal, which was agreed by the US and Russia and came into effect in Syria on Monday 12 September, but important terms of the deal, such as the safe passage of aid, have still not been fulfilled.

    The terms of the deal include a nationwide ceasefire between the armed opposition and the Syrian government, but not jihadist groups. It will be renewed every 48 hours if it holds.

    The purpose of the truce is to allow for "unimpeded and sustained humanitarian access" to besieged areas, including to the city of Aleppo.

    Analysis

    Fighters of so-called Islamic State in Deir al-ZourAP
    Fighters of so-called Islamic State in Deir al-Zour have been battling Syrian troops
    By Jonathan Marcus, BBC diplomatic correspondent

    The list of countries engaged in the mistaken strike on Syrian government positions south of Deir al-Zour on Saturday underscores that this was indeed a coalition operation.

    US, Australian and Danish aircraft were all involved as well as a British Reaper unmanned system.

    Several things seem to have gone wrong.

    Coalition intelligence misidentified the ground units as IS when they were Syrian government forces.

    But there also seem to have been problems in the established procedures for US-Russian co-operation.

    The Americans reportedly informed the Russians that there were to be strikes in this area but were not warned off.

    Maybe the Russians were not fully aware of the location of Syrian positions.

    Or maybe the scope of the operation was not clear. Coalition warplanes have struck oil targets around Deir al-Zour on a number of occasions and did so again on Saturday.

    The Pentagon said it was targeting what it thought was an IS fighting position, but the air strike was halted when Russia informed the US that the coalition aircraft were hitting President Assad's forces.

    Denmark has confirmed that Danish F16s were involved in the airstrike, alongside Australian F18 Hornets and US aircraft.

    The RAF's Reaper drones can carry both Hellfire missiles and 500lb Paveway laser-guided bombs.

    Australia's Department of Defence said the US-led coalition "will review this incident thoroughly", offering its condolences to the families of government soldiers killed or wounded.

    The attack put "a very big question mark" over the truce's future, said Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin.

    The air attack caused a bitter row between the US and Russia at the United Nations Security Council on Saturday night, with each country's representatives walking out while the other was speaking.

    An image purportedly of a soldier wounded in the US-led air strike on Deir al-Zour on Saturday 17 September 2016.Syrian War Media Network
    Image from a group close to the Syrian army, purportedly of a soldier wounded in the coalition air strike on a base in Deir al-Zour.
    US envoy Samantha Power criticised Russia for calling an emergency meeting of the council, which she said was "cynical and hypocritical".

    "Russia really needs to stop the cheap points-scoring and the grandstanding and the stunts and focus on what matters, which is implementation of something we negotiated in good faith with them," she told reporters.

    But Mr Churkin said he had never seen "such an extraordinary display of American heavy-handedness" as shown by Ms Power.
    Source: Syria conflict: UK took part in strike that killed government troops - BBC News
    "Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience". Mark Twain

    #2
    Originally posted by scooterscot View Post
    Apart from generating more refugees for Germany - What are we doing there? Public relations? Is the realm under immediate threat?




    Source: Syria conflict: UK took part in strike that killed government troops - BBC News
    What were we doing in Iraq or anywhere that wasn't part of the realm?

    If you're an arms dealer and everyone already has weapons, the best way to get them to buy some more is to get them to use the ones they've got.
    The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn't exist

    Comment


      #3
      Maybe the UK forces got fed up with being attacked by US forces(friendly fire - yeah right!) and decided that what comes around goes around....

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