MOSCOW, September 18. /TASS/. Russia is deeply concerned about the airstrike of the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition on the Syrian military near Deir ez-Zor and hopes it was not delivered at the direct order from Washington, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.
"Moscow is deeply concerned about the incident," the ministry said. "We are calling on the U.S. counterparts to have, like they announce, a most thorough investigation and to undertake measures to exclude fully incidents of the kind in future."
In connection with this, the Foreign Ministry expressed regret about the non-constructive and indistinct position of the U.S. at the emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, organized at the Russian initiative.
"The U.S. representatives not only turned out to be unable to give adequate explanations to the events, but also tried, like they usually do, to turn everything upside down," the ministry said.
The airstrike was a logical result of the U.S. permanent refusal from establishing close cooperation with Russia in fighting IS, Jabhat Al-Nusra (terrorist groups outlawed in Russia) and other affiliated with them terrorist groups, "on what Moscow has been calling Washington all the time and what is outlined in the Russian-U.S. agreements reached in Geneva on September 9."
"The actions of the coalition’s pilots, if they, as we hope, were not made at the order from Washington, are on the edge between a criminal negligence and direct indulging of IS terrorists (the Islamic State terrorist group outlawed in Russia - TASS)," the ministry said.
Special concern is caused by the fact that the incident happened on the background of the multiplying facts of registered violations of the ceasefire regime by the illegal military groupings of the Syrian opposition, which, as the U.S. claims, had joined it.
"Once again, we are calling persistently on Washington to influence accordingly the illegal military formation, it patronizes, to observe fully th4e ceasefire regime," the Russian ministry said. "Otherwise, the entire complex of the Russian-U.S. agreements reached in Geneva on September 9 will be threatened, thus contradicting interests of the entire international community."
On September 17, aircraft of the U.S. anti-IS coalition delivered an airstrike on the Syrian military near Deir ez-Zor, where 60 were killed and about 100 got injured.