Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday denounced the deadly US-led coalition raid on army forces in eastern Syria at the weekend as “flagrant American aggression”.
Speaking to Iran’s deputy foreign minister Hussein Jaberi Ansari, Assad accused world powers of supporting terrorist organizations in Syria like the ISIL terrorist group.
“Every time the Syrian state makes tangible progress either on the ground or towards national reconciliation, anti-Syrian states increase their support of terrorist organizations,” Assad said in comments published by state news agency SANA.
“The latest example of this is the flagrant American aggression on one of the Syrian army’s positions in Deir Ezzor to the benefit of ISIL” on Saturday, he added.
“Anti-Syrian forces are expending all their energy and capabilities to prolong the terrorist war against Syria,” Assad said. “Increased state support for terrorists hostile to Syria has recently presented itself in the form of naked American aggression against one of the Syrian army positions in Deir ez-Zor in favor of the interests of the ISIL terrorist group,” the president said, as quoted by the Syrian presidency’s Twitter account.
For his part, Ansari said Iran determined on providing possible support to Syria in its fateful war on terrorism.
The US-led raid on Saturday evening hit a Syrian army post near the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, where army forces have been fighting off ISIL terrorists since last year.
At least 62 Syrian soldiers were martyred in the strike. The Pentagon admitted it may have hit Syrian troops but alleged it had been tracking an ISIL position there.
The Syrian government has accused the US-led coalition of carrying out an “intentional” strike to support ISIL in the area. In a phone interview from Damascus on Sunday, senior Assad adviser Buthaina Shaaban told AFP that the government “believes that the strike was intentional”. “None of the facts on the ground show that what happened was a mistake or a coincidence,” she said.
Source: Agencies
