MOSCOW, September 21. /TASS/. Accusations of non-precision bombing have been launched against Russia in a bid to distract attention from the Deir ez-Zor tragedy and the Jebhat al-Nusra Front’s offensive on Aleppo, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov told journalists on Wednesday.
"Russia has confronted with a huge number of unfounded accusations of non-precision bombing in recent days. They keep growing in geometrical progression (today, it was in Khan Tuman, for example). This technique is well-known. The motives behind them are clear. Our western colleagues are doing everything possible to hush up the Deir ez-Zor tragedy against the background of this information row and distract the focus of attention of the world public from the Jebhat al-Nusra offensive on Aleppo and conceal the U.S. inconsistency in separating ‘moderate opposition’ units from terrorists in Syria," General Konashenkov said.
He repeated that the Russian aviation had never planned or delivered any air strikes at the Urum al-Kubra populated locality where the U.N. aid convoy had been attacked on September 19.
"Moreover, in the evening of September 19, a representative of the Russian air group deployed at the Hmeymim air base informed a representative of the U.S. Air Force command who had the rank of a colonel about that by telephone. The colonel’s name is well-known to the U.S side," Konashenkov said.
The Syrian army command reported on Saturday, September 17, that more than 60 Syrian servicemen had been killed and about 100 had been wounded in an air strike near the town of Deir ez-Zor. British militaries confirmed their participation in that attack but said they would have never bombed the Syrian forces intentionally.
A joint aid convoy sent by the United Nations and the Syrian Red Crescent Society was shelled near Aleppo on Monday, September 19. About 20 people were reported to be killed. The U.S. authorities said the convoy had been hit by an air strike. The Russian Defense Ministry, in turn, said there were no signs that the trucks had been hit by shells and added that the relief cargo must have gone on fire.