© Alberto Pizzoli / AFPAn F/A-18F Super Hornet takes off from the US navy's super carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) ("Ike") in the Mediterranean Sea on July 7, 2016
Col. John J. Thomas, a spokesman for US Central Command, told reporters at the Pentagon that about half an hour into the airstrikes, which were being undertaken by US-led coalition warplanes on September 17, the coalition air operations center (CAOC) received a call from a Russian officer.
The officer asked to speak to the designated contact, but that person was away from the phone. The Russians called back and the representative took the phone call. In less than 5 minutes, "the call to knock it off was put in place and the attacks ceased," according to Thomas.
However, the damage had been done, as 62 Syrian government soldiers had been killed by the airstrikes near Deir ez-Zor, while a further 100 received injuries.
The CAOC said that it had told the Russian military about its plans to launch airstrikes at that location, as it believed it would be targeting Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists.
"We never had struck regime targets in this conflict, we didn't intend to at the time and we won't in the future. So when we heard that we may be doing that it was our obligation to call it off immediately and that's what they did," Thomas said in the briefing.
Comment: Considering that the Americans have never before attacked this area and that just 10 minutes later terrorists attacked the same government forces, the above is a rather disingenuous statement. The Americans should provide whatever evidence they have that led them to believe Daesh would be in the area they dropped bombs on.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that the aircraft which carried out the bombings had entered Syrian airspace from the territory of Iraq.
Four strikes against Syrian positions were performed by two F-16 jet fighters and two A-10 support aircraft, it added.
"If the airstrike was caused by the wrong coordinates of targets, then it's a direct consequence of the stubborn unwillingness of the American side to coordinate with Russia in its actions against terrorist groups in Syria," Russia's Defense Ministry spokesman, Major-General Igor Konashenkov, said.
RT spoke to former UK MI5 intelligence officer Annie Machon, who expressed doubt as to whether the US airstrike was unintentional.
"I find it slightly unbelievable that the Americans could hit this target thinking this was ISIS when in fact ISIS is laying siege to the city. And the Syrian forces for years now have been known to be holed up in that city. So it seems just strange that the Americans are just saying it was a bit of a mistake," Machon told RT.
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From Wikipedia:
"On May 7, 1999, during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia (Operation Allied Force), five US JDAM guided bombs hit the People's Republic of China embassy in the Belgrade district of New Belgrade, killing three Chinese reporters and outraging the Chinese public. According to the U.S. government, the intention had been to bomb the nearby Yugoslav Federal Directorate for Supply and Procurement. President Bill Clinton later apologized for the bombing, stating it was accidental.[1] Central Intelligence Agency director George Tenet testified before a congressional committee that the bombing was the only one in the campaign organized and directed by his agency,[2] and that the CIA had identified the wrong coordinates for a Yugoslav military target on the same street."
Remember that? Who would like to bet me that the targeting of this strike on the Syrian Army was directed by the CIA, the most vicious and evil criminal cabal in the world, which is trying its damndest to start a nuckear WW3?
The CIA knows no law, no humanity, and no common sense. It has murdered Presidents, UN Secretaries-General, and numerous heads of State, plus thousands of ordinary nameless people. It can get away with all this because of its license to operate in utter secrecy. Secret even from itself - compartmentalization means that nobody who works there knows what is going on in the next-door office, or even the next-door cubicle.
It is the principal instrument of Satan in this world, closely followed by the Mossad, and that is closely followed by the Knesset. In fact, the CIA is 40% staffed at higher levels by Zionist Jews, who will punish anyone in the Agency that does not act in the interests of Israel.
All Jews hate Russia with an incandescent passion, and want the USA to nuke it into oblivion, while they stand aside, as they did in Iraq, Libya, and now Syria. The only problem is that a nuclear war will kill us all, including the Israelis. Their psychopathy makes them supremely arrogant. They think they are the world's most intelligent race, but they aren't. How could they not have foreseen that once the US knocked off Saddam for them, Iran would have nobody to restrain its power? Assholes. Arrogant morons.
Applying the legal precedent allowing crazy people to avoid trial, that religion you mentioned are entitled to their arrogance because they firmly believe that they are Gods' chosen people and exist above all else.