The Pentagon said that the Syrian tank destroyed “in self-defense»
WASHINGTON, February 13 — RIA Novosti. The coalition headed by the USA against the group “Islamic state”* (IG*, banned in Russia) destroyed tank of Pro-government forces in Syria in self-defense, said commander of the air force U.S. Central command Lieutenant General Jeffrey Harrigan.
“First, Yes, it was (UAV) MQ-9. Secondly, I would like to return to the self-defense — we rely on our ground forces, which come to this decision (on defense),” said Harrigan at a briefing, answering the question of whether the coalition destroyed tank of Pro-government forces.
According to him, the tank shot with the “effective distance” in the direction of the units of the “Syrian democratic forces” (SDF) and the American advisers who was there. After that it was decided to strike back.
According to some media reports, the incident occurred on Saturday. The blow was struck on the tank T-72, which contained three people, all of them died.
Case is the second recent clash between the coalition and Pro-government troops in Syria.
In the night of Thursday, the coalition said about the “unprovoked attack” on the headquarters of the “Syrian democratic forces” by Pro-government armed groups in eight kilometers to the East of the agreed line to prevent conflicts on the Euphrates river in the province of Deir ez-Zor.
In the message command was specified that had suffered retaliatory strikes “to repel an act of aggression against all the partners involved in the fight against the group ISIS*”. In the us media it was reported that killed about 100 fighters of the Syrian Pro-government forces.
According to the defense Ministry, in an attack wounded 25 Syrian militias. The Russian defense Ministry also noted that the cause of the incident were not consistent with Russian reconnaissance and search actions militiamen near an oil refinery against the “sleeping cells IG*”. However, the defense Ministry, unlike the Pentagon, said that the shelling, the militia was sudden.
* Banned terrorist group.