BEIRUT -- The U.S. military said it may have unintentionally hit Syrian troops while carrying out a raid against the Islamic State militant group Saturday, which if confirmed would be the first known direct American strike on President Bashar Assad's forces.
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U.S. Central Command said the airstrike was immediately halted "when coalition officials were informed by Russian officials that it was possible the personnel and vehicles targeted were part of the Syrian military."
The Syrian military said the airstrike hit a base in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour that is surrounded by the Islamic State and allowed the extremists to advance. Russia's Defense Ministry said its military was told by the Syrian army that at least 62 soldiers were killed in the air raid and more than 100 wounded.
At Russia's request, the United Nations Security Council held a private, emergency meeting Saturday night to discuss the airstrike, which provoked sharp exchanges between the U.S. and Russian envoys to the U.N.
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said outside the meeting that the airstrike could be evidence of U.S. support for the Islamic State.
Churkin spoke outside the Security Council chamber after his U.S. counterpart, Samantha Power, appeared before reporters as the meeting was starting, calling the closed session a Russian "stunt."
The Syrian government, assisted by Russia, has tortured and bombed its people, Power said. "And, yet, in the face of none of these atrocities has Russia expressed outrage, nor has it demanded investigations, nor has it ever called for ... an emergency meeting of the Security Council" on a Saturday night or any other night.
Churkin, who left the meeting as Power entered, said he had never, "in all my years in international life, over 40 years," seen "such an extraordinary display of American heavy-handedness as we are witnessing today."
Earlier, Power expressed regret for the loss of life as a result of the airstrike.
Russia has been waging a year-old air campaign on behalf of Assad's forces and closely coordinates with them.
The apparently errant strike could be a crushing blow to a fragile U.S. and Russian-brokered cease-fire that has mostly held for five days despite dozens of alleged violations on both sides. The cease-fire, which does not apply to attacks on the Islamic State, has been the subject of disputes between Moscow and Washington, with each accusing the other of failing to fully implement it.
The U.S. had informed Russia in advance of the airstrike, which was in an area that the coalition had struck in the past, Central Command said. Russian warplanes were carrying out bombing raids in the area at the same time, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based opposition monitoring group.
"Coalition forces would not intentionally strike a known Syrian military unit," the Central Command statement said.
The Islamic State has repeatedly attacked the government-held air base, which is an isolated enclave deep in extremist-held territory.
The Syrian military said the airstrikes enabled an Islamic State advance on a hill overlooking the air base. It called the strike a "serious and blatant attack on Syria and its military" and "firm proof of the U.S. support of Daesh and other terrorist groups." Daesh is the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State.
Assad's government views all of those fighting against it as "terrorists" and has long accused the U.S. and other rebel supporters of backing extremists.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said the airstrike near Deir el-Zour airport was conducted by two F-16s and two A-10s. He did not identify the planes' country affiliation but said they were part of the international coalition.
Konashenkov said the planes came from the direction of the Iraqi border.
He said Islamic State militants surrounding the air base launched an attack on the Syrian army positions after the airstrike. He added that if the coalition attack was launched by mistake, the reason for it was a "stubborn reluctance by the American side to coordinate its action against terrorist groups in Syria with Russia."
A senior Russian military official, Lt. Gen. Viktor Poznikhir, complained that the Syrian government has done everything to respect the cease-fire required from its side, warning that the U.S. will "carry the responsibility" if the truce collapses.
The U.S.-led coalition has carried out thousands of airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq over the past two years, allowing allied forces on the ground to liberate several towns and cities from the extremist group. Russia also carries out attacks against Islamic State targets, in Deir el-Zour and other parts of Syria.
"The coalition will review this strike and the circumstances surrounding it to see if any lessons can be learned," the U.S. Central Command statement said.
The cease-fire in Syria took effect Monday, and despite reports of violations, it has largely held. However, aid convoys have been unable to enter rebel-held parts of the northern city of Aleppo -- a key component of the deal.
Putin blasts U.S.
Earlier Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin questioned the U.S. commitment to the cease-fire, suggesting that Washington wasn't prepared to break with "terrorist elements" battling Assad's forces.
Russia has accused Washington of failing to rein in the rebels, and on Saturday, Putin asked why the United States has insisted on not releasing a written copy of the agreement.
"This comes from the problems the U.S. is facing on the Syrian track -- they still cannot separate the so-called healthy part of the opposition from the half-criminal and terrorist elements," Putin said during a trip to Kyrgyzstan.
"In my opinion, this comes from the desire to keep the combat potential in fighting the legitimate government of Bashar Assad. But this is a very dangerous route," Putin said.
He appeared to be referring to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, the militant group formerly known as the Nusra Front, which is embedded in rebel-held areas and fights alongside more moderate groups. In July, the group renounced its ties to al-Qaida, a claim rejected by the U.S.
Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the leader of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, condemned the cease-fire agreement in an interview with Al-Jazeera TV that aired Saturday.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov echoed Putin's remarks during a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Lavrov noted the "refusal by an array of illegal armed groups to join the cease-fire" and Washington's obligation to "separate units of the moderate opposition from terrorist groupings," according to a Foreign Ministry statement.
Under the cease-fire agreement, the U.S. and Russia would work together to target Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, due to its perceived ties to al-Qaida, as well as the Islamic State, while Assad's forces refrain from striking opposition-held areas.
But Washington has warned Russia that unless aid is delivered to Aleppo, it will not move ahead with the formation of the joint coordination center.
The U.N. has accused Assad's government of obstructing aid access to the contested city. The Russian military says insurgents have held up the delivery by firing on government positions along the main route leading into besieged, rebel-held districts, in violation of the cease-fire.
The Syrian government said it has done all that is necessary to facilitate the entry of aid convoys to Aleppo but that armed groups have failed to withdraw from the supply routes and are committing "dangerous, provocative acts."
Russia's military said Syrian rebels violated the cease-fire dozens of times over the past day, including with strikes on military and civilian targets in Aleppo. Syrian activists said government forces killed five civilians in separate attacks Saturday.
Syria's conflict has killed more than 300,000 people and displaced half of the country's population since March 2011.
Information for this article was contributed by Sarah El Deeb, Jim Heintz and Joseph Krauss of The Associated Press; by Roy Gutman and W.J. Hennigan of Tribune News Service; by Henry Meyer and Tony Capaccio of Bloomberg News; and by Karen DeYoung and Thomas Gibbons-Neff of The Washington Post.
A Section on 09/18/2016