Syrian truce receives new blows with deadly air strikes

The seven-day cease-fire is supposed to end at midnight Sunday, according to a Syrian army statement issued last week. The U.S. and Russian Federation have said that if it holds for seven days, it should be followed by the establishment of a Joint Implementation Center for both countries to coordinate the targeting of Islamic State and al-Qaida-linked militants.

A halt to fighting around Aleppo and the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid were key components of the fragile deal that took effect on Monday evening. More than 2,000 people were killed in 40 days of fighting in the city, including 700 civilians, among them 160 children, according to a Syrian activist group.

Syrian state TV reported Sunday that dozens of residents had left rebel-held areas in Aleppo and were taken to shelters in the government-controlled part of the city.

Moscow laid the blame for Sunday's violence squarely on the opposition.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said Zakharova should be embarrassed by that claim. Under the ceasefire agreement, the U.S. and Russian Federation would work together to target the Fatah al-Sham Front, as well as the Islamic State group, while Assad's forces refrain from striking opposition-held areas.

Kerry called Saturday's incident a "terrible thing. that we all acknowledge and regret".

With Valdimir Putin's Russian Federation engaged in a proxy tussle with the US-led Western alliance for influence and for the moral high-ground in the long-running civil war in Syria, Saturday's ill-directed airstrikes have become a public relations gift for Mr Putin as he seeks to depict the USA attacks on Islamic State as also being directed at the Moscow-backed Assad regime in Damascus.

"While Syria remains a dynamic and complex operating environment, Australia would never intentionally target a known Syrian military unit or actively support (Islamic State)", Defence earlier said in a statement.

If US-led coalition airstrikes did hit Syrian forces Saturday, it was unintentional and Washington regrets any loss of life, she said, before proceeding to list atrocities she said the Syrian regime has perpetuated during the five-year civil war.

Air strikes blamed by Moscow and Damascus on the US-led coalition hit a Syrian army position in the east on Saturday, killing more than 60 soldiers, the Russian army said.

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Not only is the USA providing military aid, but this pact represents the largest pledge of US military aid in USA history. According to the State Department, it is the "biggest bilateral military aid in the history of the United States".

Russian Federation said the United States was being obstructive and deceptive regarding the airstrike.

"The actions of coalition pilots - if they, as we hope, were not taken on an order from Washington - are on the boundary between criminal negligence and connivance with Islamic State terrorists", Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The Americans "not only turned out to be unable to give an adequate explanation of what happened, but also tried, as is their custom, to turn everything upside down", the statement said.

Iran, another close ally of Syria's government, also condemned the US raid, saying it violated Syria's sovereignty and "showed that terrorist groups enjoy USA support in Syria".

One Turkish soldier and six Syrian rebels were wounded on Sunday in clashes with Islamic State near the Syrian border town of al-Rai as Turkey-backed Syrian rebels pushed south toward the IS-held town of al-Bab, Turkey's Dogan News agency reported.

The prime minister confirmed Australian aircraft were involved in the coalition exercise and pulled out when Russian officials advised the targets may have been Syrian military personnel.

"Warplanes from the global anti-jihadist coalition carried out four air strikes today against Syrian forces surrounded by the Islamic State (IS) group in the Deir Ezzor air base", a Russian army statement said. It called the incident a serious and blatant aggression, SANA reported.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 90 soldiers were killed in the strike. Tens of thousands of people live in government-held neighbourhoods of Deir el-Zour under the siege of IS fighters.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said that despite the strikes on the Syrians, Syrian government forces were principally behind the truce violations.

Implementing the truce has been complicated by the presence of militants - who are not covered by the ceasefire - and mainstream rebels on some of the same frontlines.