Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
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MOSCOW, SANA – Spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry Igor Konashenkov denied the U.S. allegations on Russian planes aviation over Deir Ezzor on December 6 where an airstrike was delivered at a Syrian army camp.
“Russian aircraft were not on a mission in that area and all our flights in Syrian airspace are coordinated with air traffic control and the General Staff of the Syrian government’s armed forces,” Konashenkov said, adding that “Russia always informs the US about the time, altitudes and routes of its aircraft in Syrian airspace.”
“Pentagon officials said that on December 6, American aircraft were operating in that area, but striking a target some 55 kilometers away from the affected Syrian installation is true to an extent. But it’s not the complete truth,” he stressed.
Konashenkov added that “Two pairs of warplanes from two other countries, members of the US-led international anti-ISIS coalition, were operating in the Deir Ezzor area on the day of the attack,” pointing out that “If they were not involved in that airstrike, then why are the Pentagon’s representatives, as leaders of the anti-ISIS coalition, hushing up the presence of their allies aircraft in the Deir Ezzor area on December 6? Isn’t it because the anti-ISIS
coalition air force gets all the information on [ISIS] targets in Syria from the Pentagon?”
He affirmed “I’m sure, very soon we’ll learn who really inflicted the airstrike on the Syrian troops, as soon as the Syrian authorities make public the results of the investigation of that incident and the type of munitions used in the airstrike.”
The spokesman also denied foreign media reports that Russia was setting up new airbases in Syria and saying that “the media reports on deployment of a Russian air base came shortly after the attack in the Syrian sky carried out by Turkey’s F-16 fighter jet on the Russian Su-24 bomber to distract attention of the public from the November 24 tragedy by spreading various rumors.”
“There is no urgent need in deploying additional Russian air bases in Syria’s territory,” Konashenkov said, adding “One should not be a military expert to understand that the flight of any Russian plane to any remote area of Syria from the Hmeimim air base takes some 30 or 40 minutes.”
Reem/H.Said
