US-led coalition rejects Damascus claims that they hit regime with missiles

“The Coalition clearly targeted key ISIS leaders with success and have not targeted other parties.”

Wladimir van Wilgenburg 2018/12/03 20:55

middle east Syria US-led Coalition Sean Ryan ISIS

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Army Colonel Sean Ryan, a spokesperson for the US-led coalition, has denied reports by the pro-Syrian government media that claimed the coalition targeted regime forces on Sunday.

Pro-Syrian government news agency SANA quoted a military source that suggested the US-led coalitionhad “fired several missiles” on some Syrian Arab Army positions in al-Ghurab Mountain to the south of al-Sikhnieh city in Homs eastern countryside at around 8 p.m. on Sunday.

The military source said there was no damage.

However, Army Colonel Ryan underlined that the US-led coalition only targets Islamic State (IS) militants.

“The Coalition clearly targeted key [IS] leaders with success and have not targeted other parties,” he told Kurdistan 24.

The US-led coalition earlier confirmed that it had killed a senior IS member in the Badiyah desert on Sunday who was responsible for the murder of an American citizen in 2014.

SANA also claimed the coalition launched “many aggressions” against the Syrian Arab Army in the al-Tanf area and its surrounding regions in Syria’s Badiyah desert.

On May 18, 2017, the US hit a convoy of Iran-armed Shia fighters close to a base at al-Tanf that were planning to attack US and US-backed forces.

However, the coalition said there had been no more incidents with the Syrian army since February 2018, when Russian mercenaries and Iran-backed militias attacked Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) positions, a key US ally. In the assault, over 200 attacking forces were killed.

“I can tell you since I’ve been here, we’ve used the de-confliction process, and we haven’t had any serious incidents,” Colonel Ryan told reporters on Nov. 27.

Moreover, James F. Jeffrey, the US Special Representative for Syria, said they would not accept any attacks on the country’s northeast in a subcommittee hearing on the Middle East and North Africa on Nov. 29.

“And as we have said before, uncoordinated, unilateral military action into northeast Syria by any party [Turkish and Syrian regime], particularly where US personnel are present, is of great concern, and any action that endangers US personnel is unacceptable,” he stated.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany